It wasn't just that the handling was unlike a 737 NG, it was considered unacceptable in its own right: https://leehamnews.com/2019/02/08/bjorns-corner-pitch-st

It wasn't just that the handling was unlike a 737 NG, it was considered unacceptable in its own right: https://leehamnews.com/2019/02/08/bjorns-corner-pitch-stability-part-9/ https://leehamnews.com/2019/02/08/bjorns-corner-pitch-stabil... https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/times-watchdog/the-inside-story-of-mcas-how-boeings-737-max-system-gained-power-and-lost-safeguards/ https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/times-watchdog/the... Also, from the current article: "The crashes were caused in part by new software on the Max, MCAS, which triggered erroneously and sent the planes into nose dives. Boeing has developed a fix for the software..." (my emphasis.) Boeing would not be doing that now, if the only purpose of MCAS was to avoid training, with everything being otherwise acceptable without it.