I think I can justify to myself why pi(x,y) only gives x - otherwise, it would not be possible to make it isomorphic to Z4 (I mean it would not make any sense to map Z4xZ2 to only Z4), but why do we make such a choice in the first place ? And why can we say that {0}xZ2 is the kernel ?
Reference https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/classify-the-group-z4xz2-0xz2-using-fund-thm-of-finetely-gen-abl-grps.589328/