Been doing the skillet thing for a couple years now after my Dutch oven cracked. One tip that helped me a lot: put a metal pan or pizza stone on the rack below the skillet. When you drop the dough in, toss a handful of ice cubes onto that hot pan and shut the door fast. The steam does most of the work for that crispy shell in the first ten minutes. After that, pull the steam pan out and let it finish dry so the crust sets up right. Also make sure your skillet is bare cast iron, not enameled, since those can take the dry heat but the seasoning on plain iron handles 450 fine once it's built up. You're not late, you just found the cheaper way to do it.