Originally Posted by
golfyankeesierra
and it isn’t referenced to pitch angle either
It certainly can be., if you define it that way.
On aircraft with a fuselage mounted AOA sensor, it makes sense to use the fuselage as the reference, not some hypothetical wing chordline. Which is moving around and varies along the span as well.
The AOA definition used for 2D sections isn't very transferable to a full aircraft.