Neither you nor I know that he didn’t visually check the trim tab on the walk around.
Much of the reasoning in support of the PIC being the only piece of Swiss cheese is called “confirmation bias”. That’s why one ostensibly similar incident in the USA was chosen by FGD but not another. The other supported the inconvenient possibility that the left engine lost power due to a particular failure mode of the FCU, thus providing a reasonable and alternative explanation for the main reason why the aircraft performed so poorly after take off. Doesn’t excuse the pilot from responding adequately to the situation, provided that was the only thing wrong with the aircraft, but does strongly suggest there was more than one piece of Swiss cheese.