The spear auto-attack is a 600m ranged single-target attack.
We already have a single target (or weak multiple target bouncy attack) on the trident.
I would love the spear to be a more melee oriented weapon with more multi-target aoe at close range. The auto-attack could be reduced in range and changed to the standard AoE three mobs, melee type.
Part of me thinks that someone in ANet was thinking “hey, wanna see something funny? Watch this…”