I do not disagree with you in that "fine officers are produced in all the ascension programs". There are also those "less than fine" officers produced in every ascension program. The issue IMHO opinion is that those individuals attending SA's are more "immersed" in their service (24-7-365) than their ROTC or OCS/OTS counterparts. We had son's in both NROTC and USMA, the son at USMA excelled, loves the service, got any needed help when needed (even during COVID), and is on track to graduate and got his first choice in branch. The son who was in NROTC, is a engineering double major who during COVID struggled as every class was online, and 0 help was available. In addition, his NROTC Cadre was little or no help in assisting with his academic struggles, only did NROTC stuff twice a week, provided no summer training (again COVID), and when he tried to get help with different things was not provided what my wife and I (both military vets) thought appropriate. He had a 2.7 GPA while in NROTC and was overloaded with the NROTC and Academic workload and didn't get any help from Cadre and became extremely frustrated. He ended up leaving NROTC. A year and a half later he has a 3.4 GPA and rising, has a fantastic internship that gives him outstanding academic support, and still has the option of OCS or Direct Commission if he chooses that path.
These are just my thoughts..... Those people who desire to attend SA's (for the most part) seem to get a higher level of basic training and help when needed than ROTC or OCS candidates. This is overcome by BOLC, where everyone is highly trained in whatever branch or specialty they are going into as well as advanced schools and grad schools. So once in duty status, there isn't much difference between Commissioning sources, but it seems to appear that the services are trying to get SA's grads to serve more than their initial ADSO, and modifying service assignment and branching may be the way they are trying to do this. I personally do not feel the new methods are for any "Equity, equality, or other non defense related reasons", but rather to try and fit people in a position they are most likely to succeed and remain in the service.