Spike came out of the BX-19 Rhino Horn Booster and is essentially a shrunken Needle — a small, sharp cone, considerably tinier than High Needle’s. Like Needle it holds the centre and stays put even under a hard launch, so it is predictable and easy to launch confidently. The reduced size does remove one High Needle failure mode: the cone is too small for a tilting combo to settle onto its side and keep spinning at an angle.
Everything else about that small tip works against it. Friction is extremely low, low enough that an unstable launch can slip on the stadium floor, and the minimal contact surface offers almost nothing to resist a hit. Its reputation reflects this — it is widely described as the weakest of the defense tips, with poor knockout resistance and little it does that another bit does not do better.
Wear is a further problem: the fine point deforms and damages easily, so anyone genuinely using it needs spares. Needle, High Needle or Ball cover the same ground more reliably.