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Playing an Arcanist now, the decision was made at our table that they were spontaneous casters, who had to "prepare" the spells they know each day (Similar to how a Sorcerer changes spells every few levels...just a lot more often)
Signature Spells: At 1st level and each time a spell specialist gains a new spell level, she chooses a signature spell. The spell specialist can cast this spell without preparing it, in the same way a sorcerer casts spells spontaneously. Even though the spell specialist does not need to prepare this spell, it still counts against the number of spells she can prepare, reducing the number of spells of each level she can prepare each day by 1.So, the spell specialist archetype is under the impression that the default arcanist is not a spontaneous caster.
Or just as likely was explaining the difference between casting the Signature Spells and between normal arcanist prep/cast.
**Definitely not a bump or anything...**
Signature Spells: At 1st level and each time a spell specialist gains a new spell level, she chooses a signature spell. The spell specialist can cast this spell without preparing it, in the same way a sorcerer casts spells spontaneously. Even though the spell specialist does not need to prepare this spell, it still counts against the number of spells she can prepare, reducing the number of spells of each level she can prepare each day by 1.So, the spell specialist archetype is under the impression that the default arcanist is not a spontaneous caster.
The way I read that ability, you are automatically considered having one spell at each spell level prepared, but at the cost of reduced spells prepared at each level. That's all the ability does; it doesn't really change any other mechanic just because it likens casting their automatically prepared spells to a Sorcerer's spontaneous casting. By that logic, SLAs are spells. Which they are. Except when they're noted they're not. In this case, that's already done for us.
Of course, they also can't be prepared spellcasters because nothing that works for prepared spellcasters also work for Arcanists, and there's no such class that can be both prepared and spontaneous at once without special wording (which this doesn't have).
Needless to say, they're worse off than both Wizards and Sorcerers, who've been around since the beginning of the game's creation, in a given AP due to lack of compatibility options with magic items like Pearls of Power, Rings of Spell Knowledge, and so on. (I'll never play an Arcanist in an AP knowing this now.)