Most of the phillips (or "crosspoint") screwdrivers that I've come across have tip geometry that can be improved a great deal with a little grinding. The simple process shown here probably delivers the most improvement for the least effort, in the largest number of cases... it consists of slightly squaring off the tip with a grindstone.
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Aside from the poor general machining of most low quality screwdrivers (or bits), there's one particular oddity that degrades the functionality of even some pretty decent ones -- the fact that the tip comes to a little bit too much of a point, to where the blades actually effectively become a cone that prevents the tip from seating all the way into most of the screws you will come across. This is a problem, for instance, when trying to remove a stubborn or frozen screw, and instead of turning it, the screwdriver merely destroys the head of the screw, making removal vastly more difficult. Note the picture inset showing how much of the blade is being kept from seating in the screw head due to the excessively pointy tip.
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There are two main types of "philips" screwdrivers out, which happen to PERFECTLY match the two main types of "philips" screws.
First there is the cross point, aptly named as they are the ones that come to sharp point, these also have the flat,square flutes. The point has NOTHING to do with being able to use the wrong size and still have it "kinda" work. It has everything to do with the fact that the screws it was designed to fit have a pointed recess with perfectly flat and square sides.
Then there is the cross TIP, which has a blunt end (hence the name tip and not point) and angled flutes, designed to fit perfectly in the screws made just for that type of driver.
Easy to tell which one to use, if the slots in the screw are flat, you need a cross point, if the slots are tapered, you need a cross tip. If the screwdriver you selected does not fit the screwhead PERFECTLY, then you have the wrong screwdriver, go dig in your tool box and grab the right one.
The right tool for the right job, use the correct screwdriver for the type of screw and guess what, NO more stripped screws and or chewed up screwdriver tips.
"The Phillips screw drive has slightly rounded corners in the tool recess, and was designed so the driver will slip out, or cam out, under high torque to prevent over-tightening."
Some car manufacturer I forget which decided to go with phillips screws because their workforce was ill trained I suppose. Google it I'm sure it'll come up with all of the gory details for ya.
And yeah, you can get more life out of any phillips screwdriver with some skillfull grinding and filing on it.
So in short phillips screws, and screwdrivers suck by design, but they're everywhere so we all gotta deal with it I suppose.
I take Wikipedia with a grain of salt. The nature of public editing (should we say because of human nature?) provides a reasonable doubt of accuracy. It's not an authoritative reference and by it's very nature it never will be unless procedures are changed.
I do like the idea that the Phillips tip was designed as a fail-safe.
But more likely it is just sloppy fabrication techniques.
I have also ground down the outside edges of the wings, very slightly, just enough to give a square edge to them, they grip better that way. But the best technique is to buy the best quality magnetic tips that you can find.