you have to be the elite to get a spot, so its quite likely cadets would make some pretty damn good pilots.
Not as elite as you used to have to be. I know personally a lot of very capable and smart young kids who were looking at potential flying careers but have decided to do something different. Their reasoning is that effort/ cost to potential ratio just isn't cutting it any more. They can get a better return on their time/ effort than what aviation can provide. This means that the aviation is no longer attracting the best and brightest to the same extent that it used to. So whilst the cadetships may take the best of the applicants, the reality is the talent pool available is being significantly reduced.
That's not to say that those selected don't meet minimum standards- I'm sure they do. Just that they may not exceed the minimum standard in the way in which others in the past probably did. There will come a day when the 'minimum standard' simply isn't good enough for the situation- I wonder if the AF447 prang was an example of this but that's for another thread. I'm not sure the airline managements who endorse and encourage the types of cadetships currently on offer quite understand this concept.
I know student pilots with tailwheel and aerobatic experience and with 100hrs total time that can run circles around most 2000 hr instructors regarding aircraft handling, crosswind landings and flight/energy management.
The aim of experience is to avoid situations where you have to display superior efforts of stick and rudder skills in order to get the job done. There are certainly F/Os that can fly rings around me in terms of aircraft handling. I've also seen them occasionally come unstuck simply due to lack of experience in certain situations. Invariably it's because I've seen those situations before and could see the situation developing and they haven't. You under value 'experience' at your own peril. Ironically, the QF group management are doing just that. Their desire to make redundant experienced Captains and F/Os (if they got their way in the next EBA) is a great example of that.