Can A Domain Recover From Thin Content Penalty?

Anyone have any experience with the thin content penalty on a domain, having the penalty lifted, content fixed and rankings returning? Or is a penalized domain forever shit?

Reason I ask is because I bought a very high authority domain that dropped, but didn't know it had this penalty until I got it and added it to GWT.

I was planning to build a new site on it in the same niche but of much higher quality. I can get the penalty removed no problem but is this even going to be worth it or should I just start fresh on a new domain?

If you just bought the domain just let google know you are the new owner and they will remove the penalty, but just so you know all old link juice will be forever gone so after they approve it, it will be treated as a new registered domain.

Ive done it in past with one domain I bought that I found out later had a penalty but I let google know I was the new owner and they removed the penalty. And that was maybe a few years ago and that domain have many nr1 spots in google today. But as I said after they remove the penalty it will be treated as a new reg domain so any old links pointing to the site will be useless.