I agree that pikemen drop their pikes way too easily. It may be due to the unit cohesion bug or some other bug as the phalangites in RTW did not suffer from this as much. Knights of course should sometimes be able to push their way in and break up the formation (especially if they are fighting green troops or if the pikes were caught reforming), but at present they do so too much.

Historically, cavalry vs infantry encounters were primarily psychological. "Shock tactics" seem to be mostly myth. Despite the awesome power of the couched-lance charge, its purpose was to scare the infantry off rather than annihilate 80% of the unit on impact like we have in M2TW. Charging knights could easily scare off most infantry without making contact at all. Even many centuries later at Waterloo, hardened British regulars, drilled and disciplined though they were, found it difficult not to run away from the charge of cuirassiers, who carried no lances and wore much less armor. Once the infantry started fleeing, the cavalry could of course simply ride in and skewer them all. Not even the need to cross weapons, although of course infantry that could not get away fast enough would be run through or ridden down.

Likewise, if the infantry stood firm or presented the charging cavalry with some kind of obstacle, the horsemen would slow and the charge would lose momentum. Pike/bayonet formations were designed not to skewer reckless cavalry, but to dissuade the cavalry from charging home and give the musketeers more time to reload shoot them up. If the cavalry was truly determined to engage then they would stop the charge, trot up to the pikes and start poking ineffectually with their lances or attempt to push their way past the pikes. This was usually very disadvantageous to the knights, because they were always outnumbered 4 to 1 on the same frontage by the infantry. Volley fire could also break up charges by turning the cavalry's front rank into a barrier of corpses thick enough to force the rest to slow or divert around. Unlike in computer games, dead bodies are not just there for show and can actually hinder movement on the battlefield. Note there IS one well-known possible example of cavalry getting skewered while charging infantry. This is of course the French knights at Agincourt charging the longbowmen and impaling themselves on the stakes. This might be because the bowmen stood IN FRONT of the stakes and gave way at the last moment, leaving the horsemen no time or room to stop.

Of course if M2TW implemented cavalry charges "historically" then we would end up with a really boring game. Either the infantry would rout before impact (like in RTW) and the cavalry auto-win, or the infantry would stand firm, the charge would stop short, and everyone goes home. So we get massive impacts, lots of blood, swirling melees and heaps of decorative corpses. A lot more fun.