Do cadets actually outrank non-commissioned officers?

I look at it this way, until that Cadet puts bars on his/her shoulders, and myself as a NCO....I've earned my strips, they need to earn the respect

The answer is NO ! Having been an NROTC middie, I can definitely answer that question. Cadets and Middies of the service academies are actually reservists, enlisted rank. They do not become officers until they graduate, pass their commissioning physical, and are sworn in as officers. Any failure in these steps means they never become officers at that time. Because they owe for their education, there is payment due. Some will have to spend time as enlisted, active service members.
Hope that clears it up.

Contracted senior and GRFD scholarship cadets do, however it’s really hard to not make them the butt of all jokes.

To be fair, many of our cadets in my unit are former soldiers of ours so they know how army works.

When I was a Cadet at New Mexico Military Institute and was assigned to an Engineer unit, for training purposes I was the Plt Ldr, but as was pointed out to me by both my Chief as well as my CO, it is for training only (mine) but that I am NON deployable, and the troops knew this.

told a cadet (Cadidiot or ROTCreature) that every soldier in Basic memorizes all of the ranks in the Army, and nowhere in that list is cadet. He was upset.

Just let them flap their gums on how they know how to do a task. When they are done, take over, apologize for the time wasted and then do the correct training

True, for Academy, and Junior & Senior ROTC.
However the Cadet has likely never heard of the term "Malicious Compliance".
You gonna learn today son...

My father was an ROTC instructor when this happened to him. SFC and a Korean War Veteran. To say the entertainment quality was exquisite would be an understatement. He politely reminded the Cadet who was the student and who was the teacher. Then the real dressing down occurred. It ended with day saying basically The Cadet had to go through him if he had any hopes of ever being an Officer.

The only advantage they possess is with their paperwork they can gain attendance to the O Club or O Mess. That’s it, they’re college students doing whatever, in my case they dominated my class at FT Benning in jump school. From there some were moving on to Ranger School. One of them got me a set of papers and I enjoyed the O Club with them, I was an E4 at that time, and I can’t remember any snotty cadets, they were all young guys following a career path and they in no way felt superior to anyone from my view.

I can tell you that I have never saluted a cadet. In the Army or the Navy. In fact, I caught a midshipman once on my ship chewing out a seaman for not saluting. I walked up, told the seaman to carry on and turned to the midshipman and told him if I ever caught him trying to get a crew member to salute him again, I would take him before the Skipper and possibly charge him with impersonating a Commissioned Officer. No problems from that cadet the rest of the time they were aboard.....