Covenant
For what it is worth, and we may be bordering on semantics here, I don’t think the picture necessarily shows the separation of the vortex from the top of the wing as I suspect the smoke is just visualising the centre of a quite large diameter and complex vortex.
Again, at the risk of going over old ground too much, the BEA traces show that once the accident aircraft departed from control (and the alpha shot up) the extra lift that was released took it up to 800 feet.
I guess all that says is that the slender planforms do generate enormous lift at high alphas but that it is quite unusable (and so academic) due to stability problems and the associated enormous induced drag. This is really why I dislike the use of the word “stall” when talking of this accident because that word makes most people think of a shortage of lift.
Thanks for your private message BTW
Regards