Alright, that makes more sense, the trick is that the (conserved) angular momentum vector need not be parallel with the angular velocity vector, the simplest ex

Alright, that makes more sense, the trick is that the (conserved) angular momentum vector need not be parallel with the angular velocity vector, the simplest example being torque-free precession [0]. It doesn't help that most examples of non-constant angular velocity have external forces in the mix to confuse the reader. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precession#Torque-free_or_torque_neglected https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precession#Torque-free_or_torq...