Yeah the teaching methods are sometimes backwards.
They throw a mountain of theory at you with no context what so ever, then explain what it is for at the end when you already developed a hate for the whole thing, or forget to even say that and just throw a test at you.
In my opinion a good example of this was control theory. They give you more math than you can shake a stick at, but at no point explain what any of it really does in real life. They have you calculate the angular speed of a control system in radians per second, you get a number out the end, alright done. Yet it was never mentioned to me that this is basically just the bandwidth of the thing in units that make less sense than Hertz and tells you how fast it reacts... yet how fast a regulation loop reacts is a pretty significant thing to know. The whole thing looks really complicated but in reality implementing a PID controller is really easy and involves elementary school level of math, them turning them to be stable are also simple cookbook recopies that involve similarly simple math. But i only figured that out by actually trying to make a PID controller on my own.
Another example is that i never really understood how FFT works. I memorized the numeric process, got a number out and passed the test, then forgot it all within a week. Then i saw a few minute long youtube video that nicely graphically explains how FFT works with graphs and animations while pointing out what part of the math does that part to give it context. Suddenly it all made sense and it looked like a really simple and easy thing.
Teaching is an art in itself and unfortunately most people suck at it.
Actually, there's a trick in that the generator windings doubles as the inductor!
https://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/boost-hack/
Ah nice one.
Another example is the motor driver in the Reault Zoe car where they use the motor as an inductor of a switching converter during charging. Allowing them to reuse a lot of the electronics to create a high power onboard charger without much extra weight and cost.