I was asked, why keep a spear the entire game?

This was an odd run for me. The first weapon I received was a great axe. It is too large to be a value. I had almost no armor the entire game, until the imp. I obtained the ring of tenacity and the vampiric spear early on. Typically , I take my first upgrade scroll and turn it into enchantment stones and apply the stones to my bow. Throughout the game I mainly rely upon my bow as my primary weapon and don’t give much concern to a melee weapon. I later picked up the ring of furor. I augmented my bow for greater damage at the cost of speed. Using the ring I was able to offset and even greatly improve upon my attack speed. It is very rare that I get the chalice artifact. After looking over my inventory early on and realizing I was going to be challenged for armor and weapons, I noticed that between the 2 rings and the vampiric spear and the chalice of blood, by applying my upgrade scrolls I could achieve almost immortality. The rings prevented me from dying easily, which allowed me to fill the chalice and the chalice regenerated my health and if I should take enough damage, by using my other ring in combination with the spear, I could stab at my enemy’s nearly 6 times as often as they could attack me and gain health back from them.

So, yes, I kept the spear.

Items dropping on a chest is not a new thing, presumably you just haven’t encountered it before