See, that just illustrates that there is a fundamental disconnect between 4Ed's design decisions with the way I use polearms.
In other games- including previous editions of D&D- I'd use the polearm to strike my foe before he closed with me, sometimes even in the classic style of attacking from the second row. Many times, I'd also use it for AoOs, controlling a large area of space. Some games, I'd even get to use the weapons with my hero's powers.
Now, I'll grant you that in 3.X, you had to use a lot of feats to get full use of a polearm (again, a design decision I didn't really like, but was better than previous editions which didn't really give them their due), but regardless of your level of proficiency with it, if you had a power that worked with a weapon, it worked whether it was your turn or not.
But again, this is not the point of the thread. I really think in fairness to the OP that if you wish to continue this tangent about my dislikes, it should be done in another thread.