I have CMT, and was very clumsy as a child, with a very high instep. About 12 years ago I started having numbness in my toes, which has now progressed to a complete loss of sensation to just above the knees. Skin punch biopsy showed severe length dependent small fiber neuropathy, NCS shows large fiber neuropathy with muscle loss. All is slowly progressive. This is by way of background.
As to your question, I experience the weakness, lack of balance, and stabbing pains in the ankles that you describe. I do not have complete foot drop as yet, but I am dragging and catching my feet more often. The ankle pain is weird, it feels like it should be something serious but it comes and goes without treatment. I just assume it is part of the neuropathy. I am 49.

Do they know what causes the stabbing pains in the ankles? Nobody can figure out what is happening yet.

It seems as if nearly any pain or weakness can be attributed to neuropathy, so they do not usually look further for a cause. In my case there is quite a bit of atrophy in the foot and calf muscles, which could easily be causing other muscles to overwork, or the affected muscles to become painful. The stabbing pains happen most often if I am walking on concrete or blacktop, and feel like a turned or twisted ankle, very sharp, or a stress fracture, but nothing has shown up on x-rays so I put it down to the CMT.
Foot drop does not come up suddenly, as far as I know, unless you have disc problems that cause it. I have dragged my feet slightly since childhood, and am only reaching the point of considering AFO supports at 49. Also, it is not a feature of all neuropathies, mainly the inherited ones.

Yes, you describe my sharp pains and the feeling like you just twisted your ankle perfectly..it is just what i feel and most of the time I cannot walk on the ankle at all for up to a day or so.