What alternative methods are there for controlling a plane when flight control surfaces have failed?
As far as I understand, the JAL123 pilots did use thrust manipulation in an attempt to control their crippled aircraft -- however, Japan's largely mountainous terrain conspired against them, as trying to figure out fly-by-thrust-lever requires a massive quantity of airspace, and unfortunately for JAL123, there was a mountain in the way of that effort.  UAL232 and OO-DLL, on the other hand, both happened over relatively flat terrain, which meant that the aircrews could concentrate on working with their crippled airplanes to get them back on the ground as safely as possible, without having to worry about terrain clearance.

Of course, the missing vertical stab didn't help them either, as it meant they had to do much more work to control their airplane.