Howard Hughes, your reading seem skewed.
The upper age limit for acceptance to pilot is 23. That means you must be under 23 on the day you start initial training. Can you apply a few months before you are 23? Yes, but that is cutting it fine. 17 is a good time to start
Yes, many officer branches may be in urgent need of new recruits. You say we only have a very few places available for pilots. Your very few and our very few are clearly different.
True, very few of the 12000 that walk into the AFCO will make it - say 1%, but that would need the need and is larger than in previous years.