I have been using spear only on one of my characters. Mainly because of a sense of alt-meta; I like using weapons that other people hate. It's fun to use but has severe limitations. Clearing burial chambers in very early game when everything is resistant to pierce was.. challenging. When it came to killing Bonemass I gave up and used a mace.
The most annoying aspect of spear is the fact that I can't hit things right in front of me (especially wolves in mountains on difficult terrain) because the melee hit box is janky. Grats for killing Drakes with spear, though.