Point taken, not an aeronautical engineer obviously, so I use the terms interchangeably, though yes they can fulfill different functions apparently though most seem to involve different ways of decreasing lift. But thanks for pointing that out, now I have a whole new slate of wiki articles to read
Anecdotal example:-
I used to have a 5-series bimmer which had a really annoying issue in that when you opened the sunroof or rear windows at >60mph there'd be this obvious "whup-whup-whup" sound/feeling as a pressure-wave built up inside the car and then escaped.
I got a ride in a mate's M5 and the main thing I noticed (other than it was like being in a tank fitted with an FSD) was that the "whup-whup-whup" thing wasn't there.
Bought a tiny little stick-on "lip spoiler", stuck it on the back of my car and... no more "whup-whup-whup" at any speed.
Obviously the lip-spoiler actually works by breaking up the vortices over the car so there wasn't the same pressure-wave at speed. :O
Course, a fixed spoiler (or wing) is only likely to work in one specific atmosphere so that'd be awkward for a spaceship that was flying to a whole bunch of planets.
And completely redundant on planets where there's no atmosphere at all.
I suppose it could be argued that the ships, themselves, vent heat, exhausts and other gasses and the spoilers are intended to direct those things.
In the grand scheme of things, I'm still gonna wait for an explanation for telepresence in a universe where all other communications are text-based before demanding an explanation for spoilers.
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