It’s not entirely true that context can’t help disambiguate mathematical notation. The situations in which it’s common to use a lowercase omega are quite distin

It’s not entirely true that context can’t help disambiguate mathematical notation. The situations in which it’s common to use a lowercase omega are quite distinct from those where it’s common to use a lowercase w. Even if both appear in the same formula, they will tend to have very different roles. Good notational choices also try to avoid these ambiguities. You probably shouldn’t use v and nu at the same time, even in typeset math.