We can momentarily change the AOA with elevator. Do nothing but pull a bit of elevator and what happens? The AOA is pitched and the wing will give more lift. And more drag. And the airplane will climb. Yes, we have momentarily gotten elevation with AOA. BUT..... keep holding that same elevator setting and the airplane slows down because of the increased drag from the entire airplane (wing included) and it quits climbing and will very slowly begin balance out all it's aerodynamic problems. And will settle back into a lower altitude. Will most modelers have the time and vision to see all this? Most probably, you will have run out of room at your field and are in a turn to keep sight of the sucker before almost anything has balanced out.

So we think elevator controls altitude.

What modelers actually SEE most often is the result of another aerodynamic truth. You can trade energy for altitude, and altitude for energy.

That little nugget overlaps all the others. And the others overlap it. And we can't actually see the details of the trade offs worth spit.