[biigD]

The 737MAX is a death trap that Boeing falsely claimed was the "Exact same as the 737NG". How wrong they were. They don't get it! History has repeated itself. I'll never fly on a 737MAX. I also avoid flying airbus for the accidents where airbus has failed through all of its computing and automation to make a safer craft. 

What do the engineering nerds here think? Am I making sense somewhere in this? Or is this just nonsense?

I'm not an engineer, but I do fly the airplanes. To be honest, I don't consider the MAX to be all that different than an NG. Airliners that go through generational changes (ex: 737 Classic->NG->MAX) will typically require some degree of change to the underlying systems, and the MAX was no different. In this case the new engines changed how the airplane handled at high AOA, and some code was added (MCAS) to the existing Speed Trim System to make it handle more like the NG in that flight regime. That by itself doesn't mean the design is somehow flawed - every airplane model that's been around awhile goes through similar changes as technology evolves.

So from my perspective, the fact that MCAS exists to begin with wasn't an issue (that we didn't know about its existence until after the first accident certainly *was* however)  - it was just the manner in which Boeing chose to implement it. And now that everyone's been digging into this further, we've uncovered an underlying culture issue that's allowing decisions that go against even the most basic of engineering principles to occur. I'll let the engineering types talk more about that - it's all above my pay grade.