People wonder. But we live in an age where we have a few artifacts, sparse records, and ample supplies of people with free time, interest, and theories.
Why not put them to work in conducting exercises. Kit a few thousand able bodies and put the academics’ theories to the test. No killing and no blood drawn (if it can be helped) but formations could be organized and participants can have at it.
Find out what it takes to organize, train, and employ companies of slingers, cavalry, peltasts, and hoplites in field. And let the participants improvise using the tools and weapons we know they had at hand.
Steven Peessfield’s _The Gates of Fire_ would be a great primer to get people in the spirit.
Oooh, “if it can be helped”, heh, I think there isn’t much of a reenactor community for Greek hoplite warfare, at least among modern Greeks, but it is studied and tested on a small scale here and there on university campuses in the UK and elsewhere.
Reenactment to test this particular idea (the pushing technique, which would clearly favor the more numerous side) should cover the Battle of Leuctra, which imho finally settled the Peloponnesian War.
https://www.worldhistory.org/Battle_of_Leuctra/
https://www.greece-is.com/day-ancient-greece-battle-leuctra-371-bc/