If you ever have “runaway acceleration”, all you need to do is apply the brakes fully. For instance, the brakes on any of the Toyota vehicles involved in this scam can easily override the power of the engine, even at full throttle. Your automatic transmission will likely be damaged — but, you won’t have any trouble stopping.
I'm not saying you are wrong but I can see where this is less effective as a quick response. You have two forces at work - the engine driving the car forward and the brakes trying to stop it. Neutral eliminates the forward motion immediately.
Now that might raise hell with the engine RPM's but if I saw the tach red lining my immediate reaction would be to turn off the ignition key.