All jets with low wings and underslung engines (most modern airliners) experience a pitch-up moment from engine thrust, and trim is used to compensate. When the

All jets with low wings and underslung engines (most modern airliners) experience a pitch-up moment from engine thrust, and trim is used to compensate. When the plane is being flown in some steady state, pilots adjust the trim until no force on the controls is required to maintain that state - they're not getting a specific setting from a table or memory. What's different is that at low speed, high thrust, and high angle of attack, the elevator of the MAX does not always have enough pitch moment to reduce the angle of attack. I'm inclined to say having an elevator that's not effective enough to recover from all the stall conditions regulators test for without help from the trim is probably a flaw. Whether there's a good technical reason the elevator couldn't be more effective (probably just bigger), a regulatory reason (some rule says it's not a 737 anymore if they change it), or a non-technical reason (e.g. more shared parts to make it cheaper), I can't guess.