not to mention massillians fighted in a more loose formation where swords are more usefull while hoplites used very compact formations making the use of the sword more dificult to train and wield notable exceptions are for instance the spartans who thanks to their societal organisation had the hability to train everyday and therefore where proefecient in using the sword in a tight formation (if you consider a 30 centimeters blade a sword instead of a dagger ofc)

hope this explains why hoplites only used swords as last resource since most of them where not professional soldiers and thus had limited training time and since spears where easyer to use in that formation

also the primary weapon of the hoplite warfare was the clash or oychos wich consisted in gaining momento clashing at full strenght against the other phallanx and hoped it breaks (epaminondas 50 men deep phallanx should be noted as prime example of this if you believe in that ofc) then it would be fallowed by spear against shield trying to thin out the enemies like and in the case of the spartans and a few other notable exceptions it would go down to the sword wich a few historians consider the secret of the spartan sucesses (remember this all happened without ever breaking the phallanx )

there where 4 steps but i only recall these 3

also massillian hoplites used long keltik swords and not the short kopis thus their looser formation was a requirement while with the kopis you can mantain your solid shield wall and then try to stab your opponent when there´s a small breach in their shield wall

(a normal/regular hoplite batle only had in average 5 to 7% casualties and it´s believed they took breaks beteween the fights a few people infer that during a regular hour combat only 15 would be spent fighting and the rest resting to go at the shield wall again trying to break it and once the opponent had broken it´s shield wall and retired the batle would be over terms presented and that would be the end of it)

hope this as shed some light into hoplite warfare

P.S: the stuff one learns if he sticks around long enough