Unfortunately, the “timeline” in the article you linked to was written by someone who had no clue what they were writing about. The author spoke or read something and did not understand what they were being told. There is nonsensical info mixed in and the only thing that is clear from the account is that the pilots were confused and did not know what to do.
I read in another account that the pilots turned the switches off but that it was difficult to use the trim “wheels off at high speed” so they switched them back on. There is only one stabilizer trim wheel, the speed that you are traveling at has no effect on its operation and it moves the trim position rapidly and effectively. It is obvious that neither of these guys had a clue what was going on and were just flicking switches and fighting with the malfunctioning automatic trim and probably each other.
I read in another account that the pilots turned the switches off but that it was difficult to use the trim “wheels off at high speed” so they switched them back on.... There is only one stabilizer trim wheel
The picture below shows that the 737 MAX has 2 stabilizer trim wheels.
the speed that you are traveling at has no effect on its operation and it moves the trim position rapidly and effectively
This is only true if horizontal trim is controlled by an elevator trim tab. See picture below:
In the 737, and pretty much all current airliners, pitch trim is controlled by movement of the leading edge of the horizontal stabilizer. See picture below:
The further the leading edge of the horizontal stab is away from neutral, the higher the aerodynamic force on the horizontal stab...and manual trim becomes more difficult. Compound that with high airspeed and there could be a situation where the pilots cannot manually change pitch trim. Please refer to the following video starting at time stamp 14:20. (Entire video is worth watching...thanks to WhoisAlanGreenspan? for posting the URL.
Runaway Stab Trim