Do prior enlisted service members make better officers?

I am one of those "prior enlisted" soldiers.  I think the only advantage I had over USMA-AFA-USNA-ROTC Junior officers was that I already knew what was going on and where to get answers to questions because of my prior experience.  By the time we reached 1st Lt. or Capt. we were all pretty equal. Most of them had a better grasp of the Field Grade Officer duties.  OCS prepared me for Platoon Leader and Company Commander positions.

For me I have seen yes for some and no for others

Do prior enlisted make better officers? I believe that it is situational. I will go with a PFC's ingenuity and a Corporal's sense of urgency over a 2nd Lt's observation/overseer any day. The diverse environments and dynamics of small unit/team leadership would be more compatible with an officer with enlisted experience rather than fresh out of college types. IMO.

No. An officer is a person, an enlisted is also a person. What you learn as you grow makes you better if you retain that knowledge. Then use said knowledge for good.

I may be prejudiced, but I believe so. Of course both my father and I were mustang officers as was my father in law (still a Marine at 96). I don't know whether that is still true, but most enlisted I know weren't as badly affected by the "everyone gets a trophy" syndrome.

Easy question. Yes and no. The famous "it depends" enters the equation. The Marines referred to them as 'Mustangs'. If the Army had a corresponding term, I've forgotten what it was. But really the answer is, it depends upon the individual.

I come from that "weird" time of Viet Nam and the Cold War. By "weird", I mean that a person (such as myself) could have absolutely NO college, other than advanced/college prep high school courses and become an officer at age 18 or 19. So, I was drafted, enlisted to get my choice of schools, got to Armor OCS at around 5 1/2 months in and was fortunate enough to graduate. Did that "snapshot" of initial infantry training and being enlisted make me a better officer ? Doubt it. I was driven to be "better'" by how I was raised, what I studied, and how physically fit I was long before I got to the Army. In my fairly long life I've met many people that "thought" they could do something as well/better than someone else for any number of reasons. And until they actually try it, succeed at it, and look back at having actually done it....should probably shut the heck up.

I have seen various examples of examples of officers with prior enlisted service. Worked for two four-stars who came up through the ranks. Also saw several that never really made the grade.

I read what's here, so far as I could, and I completely understand the various reactions I'd seen to what you'd asked...that being said, I've answered stuff like this, so far as I could, when I've seen such threads, however, I'll try to do so again here, so far as I'm able, as I do have a point I'd care to make, to the extent possible, OK? I was Army ROTC, then went USAF OTS right after, instead, without having been prior enlisted...I trained while at OTS with many prior enlisted, from all svcs, and, pretty much uniformly, they all, as a rule, tended to adjust, at least from what I could see, far more readily to the role, than I did, God knows, and I actually had to go through the whole thing basically twice before I'd been allowed to finish, having been recycled once. There is truth that individual maturity does have a great deal to do with whether one is suited to go straight to commissioned, or warrant...however, and I am entirely serious about this...in any large bureaucratic admin organization like a svc, things just simply don't always go right, or, at the very least, in the fashion those joining either expect, or anticipate...one guy, for example, as I'd read recently, was in the very next class after mine, he eventually finished out, I'd read, as an O-10, and yeah, that's a true story, I did read it...now, having said that, and, having had virtually everything humanly possible go wrong when I went in, working for all the wrong people, in the wrong place, for all the wrong reasons, I quite literally needed my head virtually pounded into concrete pavement, figuratively, to realize that there just were some things I wasn't going to be able to change, no matter how much I nagged, pleaded, begged, or groveled...those whom I'd seen of those enlisted before OTS, I think, managed to grasp that way earlier than I did...that's why I'm saying, in retrospect, that being prior enlisted helped those I'd seen, and could only serve to help those who'd go for such programs, honest...my wife's Dad had been a corporal in WW2, when he got accepted to the Army Field Artillery OCS at Ft Sill, after he'd been in a cpl of yrs, I'd found out...he got a Bronze with "V" for walking through a German minefield, then standing out in the open with the artillery battery he'd commanded as the Germans were shelling with the 90th Div, the "Tough Hombres", attached to 3rd Army under Gen. Patton...now, once I'd read that, I'd realized I was pretty close to right...had I been more fortunate, had I been where I'd hoped, and had wanted, then, yeah, maybe I'd have been more ready for that...honestly, I'd like to think so, of course, though, truthfully, I don't know, which'll always nag at me...however, knowing as much as I do after having spent as long as I have around the svcs and the VA, having been through two training programs, I'd have to reluctantly say yeah, having been enlisted, if only to have had time to have acclimated properly beforehand, would've been preferable, I think, to having dived into the deep end of the pool head first, with virtually zero prep ahead of time, as I'd found out was the case, honest...those are my thoughts about the whole thing, such as they are, for whatever they might be worth, OK?

A good officer is determined by that particular individual and how open their mind is to learning and advice from those around them!