<More importantly, how about re-establishing climb after a level off early in the flight? That takes an acceleration upwards, and the the thrust component is minimal.>
After a level-off, you will continue burning fuel, diminishing weight & therefore lift required. To establish a further climb requires an increase in SEP from zero. As the ac is rotated into the climb FROM THE CRUISE the thrust vector inclines as before and geometry takes its part again. The acceleration upwards is provided partly by the rotated lift vector and partly by a component of thrust.
I agree with that as far as it goes but look at the magnitudes involved. If you enter a 6 degree climb, your lift requirement in the climb reduces by about 0.005 g (= 1 - cos 6 deg). By contrast, if you establish a 1800 fpm climb over 10 seconds, the average acceleration in that manoeuvre is 0.1 g, so you need a lift of 1.1 g. That's 20 times more significant than the change enforced by geometry.
The maximum lift is likely to be at the moment when the rate of climb is increasing fastest. The geometry isn't very important.