Fact is that even if your brain is short circuited by fear of death, that's exactly in those moments that pilots should be real pilots, I mean resource to INSTINCTS, BASIC INSTICTS.
A "pilot" who hears the tremendous noise of 500 knots (!) and doesn't even touch those tho things in the middle of the pedestal (also called trust levers) to pull them back.... well, should be doing another job (and I put it nicely)....
If you bothered to read the preliminary report you would have seen that they were not at 500 knots (!!!????!!!!). They only reached 500 knots immediately before impacting the ground, after diving for 20 seconds following the final MCAS activation.
Before that however:
"From 05:40:42 to 05:43:11 (about two and a half minutes), the stabilizer position gradually moved in the AND direction from 2.3 units to 2.1 units. During this time, aft force was applied to the control columns which remained aft of neutral position. The left indicated airspeed increased from approximately 305 kt to approximately 340 kt (VMO). The right indicated airspeed was approximately 20-25 kt higher than the left."
Which is consistent with the FDR IAS trace.