We really don't have much to go on concerning Pike's earlier career, but if he had been made captain of a starship faster than anyone prior to Kirk, we have to assume that he is definitely not a recently promoted captain. I believe he told Kirk in the bar that he could command his own ship within eight years. Doing the math then Pike had a command around the time he was 26-28.
*Warning* Nitpicking and massive assumptions ahead
I realize that didn't make him a Captain (rank), but probably a Senior Lieutenant or a Lieutenant Commander. But it would be highly unlikely that he sped to a command position, only to hang there for for over a decade. Assume Pike's a LCDR by 28, a CDR by 32, and a Captain by 37.
Thus- he's been a highly regarded Captain about 10 years. He should have had at least one or two major commands prior to the Enterprise. We do know that he was on the Academy staff (where he had wriiten his dissertation and received a PhD?) when he shanghaied Kirk for Starfleet. Perhaps he had already been given command of the Enterprise, and one of his duties was to oversee her construction- and select her initial crew? Thus being at the shipyard with a bunch of cadets?
So. Captain of several years. A variety of positions successfully held. PhD in ?Something? Enough pull in Starfleet to speed up getting Kirk into the Academy. Gets an up close and real version of the Kobayashi Maru test and survives- along with Earth. Getting tortured on behalf of Earth and the Federation probably wins a few brownie points too. It looks like he was already on the path to Admiral, and events simply sped things up. Might as well promote him and put him on Starfleet Command staff while he recovers. I choose to believe the wheelchair is a temporary condition.
Last picking of nits in this post:
I bet Kirk was accepted to Starfleet Academy under a similiar rule that modern U.S. military academies have: children of Medal of Honor winners with the academic qualifications are accepted if they apply. Pike just accelerated the paperwork.
Any officer should be able to empty a bar of cadets. Captain Pike empties bars and causes all involved to run home for a change of underwear.
And whoever is in charge of Earth and the Federations defense net should be assigned to Delta Vega for the remainder of their careers. No way should anyone off planet have access to those codes. Even if every alien nastie enemy doesn't have their very own
Handy Dandy Acme Make You Talk Eel (TM), there are too many ways to physically convince someone to give up information. Every IT guy I know has had tighter control over our data than the Federation has over its security information. They must be from the same gene pool that produced Cupcake.
I
love nitpicking!
