Danny, as usual an excellent and informative reply.
You've told us that NCO pilots had no problem being accepted as equals by their commissioned opposite numbers, but what about by other NCOs in ground trades? In Len Deighton's excellent and well-researched book Bomber there is mention of resentment among long-serving NCOs who had worked their way up through the ranks seeing the Sergeants' Mess suddenly filled with 19 year old boys with brand new stripes on their arms. Did you experience any of this?
Incidentally, I wonder what happened to all those P1 and P2 etc sleeve badges - in 30 years of trading in militaria I only ever saw one set of them at a fair, and the price being asked was well into 3 figures