Back to the original post, I thought Iphikrates' hoplites were designed to be cheaper and more mobile. Presumably, if you're using them to charge the enemy head-on you're using them incorrectly. They'd be more desirable when used to outflank a larger, slower phalanx or classic hoplite formation. The wouldn't and shouldn't need to face the front.

As was stated by Laundreu, the strength of the Macedonian phalanx wasn't its infantry, but the fact that it could hold the enemy in place for a devastating surgical cavalry strike. This is something never fully realised by the various Successor states, that while a phalanx is strong it cannot win without the necessary cavalry support; the long sarissas don't make the Macedonian style phalanx very wieldy and rather vulnerable to quick manoeuvering.