I can only speak for one military branch, but I would suggest that the "benefit" that arrived with some (US) military aviators is the breadth of tasks that they are called upon to perform as compared to what one experiences in airline flying. You didn't "bid" the types of flying you did based on seniority, you had to be capable of whatever your unit of assignment's mission happened to be, day, night (lighted and unlighted runway), IFR, VFR, improved airfield, dirt strip, ship's deck, single aircraft, multi-aircraft and so forth.
Are military aviators "better"? No idea - I've never performed a flight eval of a civilian pilot. Are military aviators required to maintain proficiency in a wider range of aviation and flying tasks? Absolutely.