Sad to think that simply pulling on the flight controls in that late stage would have been the perfect escape.
Yes, in hindsight that could likely have been successful. But of course during their 30+ seconds on the runway the uncertainty resulting from the inevitable cognitive dissonance from two opposing awarenesses . . ., that they were "in reverse" (because it was selected), and that they were "accelerating" made such a decision extremely difficult in the time available. Would they take an airplane into the air immediately after cancelling reverse? It's occurred before with disastrous results, as discussed in the thread.
The confusion may have been settled by looking at the reverse lights and a quick decision to take off again may have been possible.
Is this not an entirely preventable accident?
This was not a complex system; - it was a simple thrust-reverse system which permitted an ordinary and experienced crew the selection of high thrust levels with the reverse levers in "Reverse" but without the reversers deployed. I would have thought that such old and basic systems as reverse thrust installations would have been designed, (including sufficiently protecting single-point failures such as the sensors from environmental effects or damage), to prevent such circumstances.