I was never directly involved with the Cadetship, but I spent a decade flying with the finished product. Despite what you may think of REX, and more to the point REX Management (you will find that out yourself in due course), the quality of the graduated men and women were top class. Putting aside some of the criticisms, I reckon it's an excellent leg up into what has always been a very tough game.
One thing that amused me though, was one biproduct of REX's fairly demanding selection criteria. This led to an intelligent and well-motivated junior pilot group who in the end were unwilling to take the proverbial pineapple once they had graduated. One major factor in starting the Cadetship in the first place was sold to the board as a means to cultivate pilots who were essentially "Company" people. Candidates were even required to write a letter declaring their fealty to the company above all else. Didn't quite pan out that one. In fact, I reckon they're still scratching their heads about it to this day.
We had a standing anecdote at the Federation. We knew when there was a Cadet graduation at REX, because our membership would suddenly spike!