I see your point and I do understand why drag is NOT generally intrepreted as lift - It simply confuses things.
How about this:
Let's say a panel comes loose on the side of a 747 .
What does it do?
does drag hold it in position if the plane yaws slightly?

I would bet money that it "lifts" off the fuselage.
Whe a rudder is moved Do we call that side lift?
I know -- goofy
BUT as long as the rudder makes the craft yaw - be it in a 90 degree position or a 10 degree position- it still works
When does side lift change to drag and as long as it works -do we still call it lift?
On my newest aerobat - (a pretty large gas powered one) -- I depend on the entire aft section of the fuselage to act as a yaw damper - so what is doing this ?
Equalized drag ?
By using a low aspect ration wing (3.3) I can eliminate a lot of rudder fin area and simply flatten the fuselage and balance fore/aft areas enough to control yaw stability .
The short wing can be yawed easiyl and drastically without generating a snap roll.
Net effect is that the aerobat can switch from using the wings for lift --to using the fuselage
It DOES work -in fact the test models will simply loop smoothly in this knife edge position.
No I don't expect to se this setup on a passenger plane -