I agree with most of this, Raspy- I often carry an older style Hibben thrower and/or a fish fork for this reason, but there are some grumbles I have.

With thrusting spears, it's not a matter of breaking the knife. It's a matter of breaking the shaft (not uncommon- most things squirm when you stab them) and having the animal run off, or your lashing isn't as secure as it should be, and the animal runs off. With the blade still in them, there isn't a lot of a blood trail, and unless you have a lot of practice tracking, without that or deep snow, most people have now lost thier knives. (Same reason why throwing knives are lousy weapons.)

The other issue I'd point out is, you're talking about spearing a wild pig. Unless you have an absolutely solid crossbar, wouldn't those just go up the shaft to get to you? At least that is thier reputation. And can't imagine that most other critters wouldn't try it either. Although if you've snared it already, that largely minimizes the risk to you, and in a defensive situation, the stand off will at least slow them down.

I guess my real question is, in all but the most long term scenarios, wouldn't an equal wait of snare wire and trot line be more efficent, even if bulkier? Spear hunting is still hunting, it still take a lot of time, while snares and trot lines just require checking. And while they might not catch the bigger, more glamorous game, can one person use all of a deer without wasting half or more of it in a true survival situation. Sure, you can jerk it, but over an open fire, most don't have the skill, nor the need. (I make a distinction between survival, which is temporary, and "welcome to stone age living, things aren't going to change for a few years.") So not only have you wasted meat that you spent a lot of time and energy on, but you've also set up an attractor for scavangers near or even in your camp.

I'm not disagreeing with anything in your essay, I'm just wondering if it's really a viable strategy. I always figured that to no small part, the "break your blade" thing was mainly to discourage people with more testosterone than brains from wasting time on something silly.