Only thing Icarus it was not the crew that saved that flight (from the reports).
There seems very little info on this previous Lion Air flight and I/we do not know when the incorrect MCAS input was given. We do know on the two crash flights it was soon after take off, and either after flaps 0 selected or the flaps had fully retracted.
From memory a number of pilots have done the Lion Air & Ethiopian events in the MAX simulator (knowing they will have a MCAS simulation) and they did manage to land safely but said it was "very challenging" - so in a surprise event, the numbers of successful outcomes will reduce. I would have very little doubt the pilots used to do these simulator events, post crashes were nothing but extremely capable pilots selected by Boeing. So in reality it should not have been a challenge at all as many have mentioned, but a breeze or a non event - or did Boeing use substandard pilots for this simulation?