People whine about polestagger too much. I rarely get a stagger on someone, and when I do I'm never expecting it so I don't have another swing ready to go when it happens. Even when I get staggered I hardly ever get hit again from the same person (unless I'm trying to attack instead of block).
Polearms were used differently than 2handed swords in combat, some had hooks, and would use the blunt end for sweeping the feet as well. You can't really compensate for that in warband, so they make the lengths not as long as 2h animations, but give them polestagger chance. Seems legit to me.
But people QQ enough and the dev's will cave in, like they always do. Same reason you end up with a game like World of Warcraft. All the lowest common denominators bitch enough, and they make a watered down game that appeals to the most people (trying to appease everyone is a horrible model for making great games, it's a good model for making a lot of money though).