Phil Hord [off-list ref] writes:
Normally the pickaxe options limit the diff output to those files which
contained the changes being searched; that is, those files which
had modifications including the search string. With the --pickaxe-all
option, the diff of the entire commit will be shown including files
which did not have modifications including the search string. This
is designed to make it easier to review the changes in the context
of the whole commit.
I find this very readable, even though "diff output" might be
somewhat misleading (it is not "output for the end user", but is
"passing to the next stage in the pipeline").