Second, once that jackscrew was jammed, they had to try everything to get pitch control on the aircraft. Your suggestion to divert without any elevator control, is in our pilot's handbook rather difficult to perform.
Read the accident report! They had control, it just took unusual control forces because the (jammed) location of the stab. If they had just left it the heck alone, they could have landed. The lawyers (who I hate BTW) had a field day.
Trying to fix the problem without understanding the problem caused the failure and resultant crash.
Oh, I doubt any engineers had any input into the extended lube intervals that allowed the jackscrew to fail. It was done by bean counters and bureaucrats (who I hold in similar esteem to lawyers).