I mean, was "Spike" that important. Does he even represent something ?
Mario regular enemies have strong fanbases,this is one the few series in gaming this happen.
I mean:
Folks love dry bones because their undead design.
Hammer bros because of their gang likeness, difficulty to beat and beautiful theme song.
Lakitus from being the guy from mario kart/mario 64 to a jerk on regular games thanks to his coward trickeries .
Goombas and koopas for being dumb.
Shy guys for being
edgy mysterious.
Magikoopa for being the major henchmans from bowser.
and the list goes on...
I personally like spike for being a DK wannabe and a ground lakitu that mysterious spawns spike objects from the stomach,that guy is complex as sh*t bro,for me beats the
fish enemy cheep-cheep enemies for at last trying something, to surprise throughout an entire section of a stage ,you should check the captain toad DK stage stage to see what I am talking about.
Edit:Also give free points for him getting his modern design from a bad OVA.