What if she simply got disoriented (she was flying very slow, almost hovering, in absence of points of reference) and didn't realize the machine started to yaw a bit. As the yaw gained momentum she was not very quick to give full pedal (many pilots don't have an instinctive reaction to hit the stop under stress) and simply thought she had lost the T/R, hence she shut the throttle. That could be another explaination of the early horn, as well as why the horn took so long to come back (was still sounding when she had resumed straight flight at what seems a good clip of speed).
R/rpm must have dropped a lot because it took the whole descent to restore it. Would simple overpitching result in such a long time with the horn-on if full emergency power was on WHILE so much altitude was being lost (could I add at attitudes that should place decent airflow through the disks?) and speed being re-gained?
As Nick pointed out, the LTE "excuse" adduced in the investigation report makes even less sense (again why the low rpm horn so ealry if it's LTE).
In any case, in my view rotor rpm got pretty close to beyond recovery. Guess, they got a break because of the 44s high rotor mass and the lots of altitude they hade to play with, but this could have been a nasty one. Lucky crew.
Nevertheless, kudos to the girl for keeping her cool and trying a recovery till the end.
Never give up!