i think its just so that picking it up is an intended feature, where before it was kind of a glitchy type thing with getting it as soon as you cancel
Yeah, this is pretty much the case. The Design team felt that some of the interactions (like needing to specifically cancel in order to pick up the spike) were unintuitive.
This also means that shooting an Omen's shade before they're able to cancel will now no longer deny picking up the Spike.