Which has absolutely nothing at all to do with the stated power level of Ion as shown in canon. That story may be -- in your opinion -- the absolutely worst piece of trash anyone has ever written, and it would still be in-continuity. Just because you don't personally like it doesn't all of a sudden make the power of Ion somehow less than it was shown to be, which is clearly above the capacity of the Silver Surfer.
I'd like to know which storylines exactly Winick wrote which you think were so character-destroying and pushed his own agenda ahead of Kyle's characterization, 'cause off the top of my head I can't think of a one.
Which is why I said that "events sort of contradict each other on this." In the Power of Shazam series by Ordway, Captain Marvel Junior was turned back to Freddy Freeman by lightning from a non-magical villain. In the OMAC Project, the OMACs were able to turn Mary Marvel back to her regular self with regular lightning. And I heard of one instance -- heard, not seen -- where Captain Marvel himself got turned back to Billy by some electric eels.
