Hi Charlemagne,
Welcome! I'm pretty new myself but have found everyone here at OG very warm and helpful. I would have done the same thing you did - repot into a bark mix rather than leave it in sphag - and I hear people like the Schultz mix, though I toss my own mix together that is similar. I might have left the spike to see if it would put out a follow-on growth, which Phals sometimes do, but this is personal preference and nobody would fault the decision to cut it back. Sounds like, with the new leaf and root growth, you're all systems go. You might check out the AOS Culture Sheet if you haven't already -
AOS | Phalaenopsis
Good luck and have fun!