So after looking through the java docs, I managed to get an implementation that works without going through the database.
from com.inductiveautomation.ignition.common.alarming.evaluation import EventProperty
from com.inductiveautomation.ignition.common.alarming.config import CommonAlarmProperties
prop = EventProperty.createStatic(CommonAlarmProperties.EventValue, False)
activeEvent = event.sourceEvent()
activeData = activeEvent.getActiveData()
activeEventValue = activeData.get(prop)
This did the trick. I do still wish there was a more direct way to access active alarm data from an acknowledge pipeline though.