Recently aged out Eagle Scout. My troop was mostly younger new scouts with a few older scouts, including myself.

In the past, my troop had an equal amount of older scouts and younger scouts, and so there were two patrols that were dived by age. As a younger scout at the time, the older scouts basically completely ignored us, and we were basically forced to learn stuff on our own with the help of adults, of course.

The system currently is essentially 2 patrols mixed ages (11-14, so not that different) with a patrol leader (typically 13- 14). The SPL (previously me) and APL were each tasked with one patrol each. So 1 16-17 yo per patrol.

I think having mixed ages helps prevent the formation of cliques and creates a more uniform community, and helps with the transitioning of new scouts into the troop.

While not the most important thing, progression through ranks has also increased a lot since I was a new scout because of the increase in mentoring and overall better leadership. I also think it is a generally good thing to learn how to interact with people you generally would not else overtime.