furthurmore, attempting to pick up the plastic bottle after pressing one doubles the plastic bottle and leaves one behind. i will test if it works the same way for other items, and whther pressing other numbers has any effect.
edit: it works the same for other items and it doesnt seem to matter what number i press. it does matter that i press the number before i pick up the item in the pickup screen.
edit: for items that are actually stackable, like bandages, picking up part of the stack merely splits the stack as expected. it works properly even if there is only one item left in the stack. this appears to be the only case where the #pickup works properly. presumably somebody programmed a way to pick up and split stacks, and didnt consider the consequences to non stacking items.