Late Hoplites appearence

[PMBardunias]

Nor did Spartans cease wearing armour. Cleombrotus' co-king Agesilaus, we are told, was wounded "through his armour".

I left him unarmored because we do not know what type of armor he might have been wearing. There are not many references to body armor in infantry from this period, but cavalry had never abandoned it, often wearing bronze thorakes to make up for the lack of shield.

I think it unlikely that Cleombrotus was unarmoured or wore a 'Pilos' helmet ( no one can say for certain). Nor were Spartan helmets exclusively cheap 'Pilos' types

I'm not sure what you are basing this on. The "cheapness" of the pilos is overated as a reason why it was worn. The pilos was quite fashionable in this period and rich men wore them. The power of civilian fashion on the military can be seen in early modern cavalry, where perfectly good opened-faced helmets were abandoned in favor of "secrets" beneath civilian hats or even such hats rendered in metal. I actually had a hard time finding images of Boetian hoplites in this period wearing "boetian" helmets! Though many wear the pilos. We put them in anyway to differentiate the forces.

All that said I agree that any phalanx was much more motley than what we show, but remember this is a clash of the Sacred band and the Hippeis. If any group could pull off uniformity it was these two.