As a retired airline pilot, I’m quite interested in the pitch problems that required automated inputs to control. Most all swept wing aircraft nowadays require yaw-dampeners that prevent “Dutch-roll” tendencies that activate automatically. This sounds like a similar system, except it counters unwanted pitch sensitivity caused by low-slung high-powered jet engines, particularly at high (take-off) power-settings.
In the US where airline pilots are both highly experienced and extremely well trained, there have been no such desasters in many years of MAX operations
“As a retired airline pilot, I’m quite interested in the pitch problems that required automated inputs to control”
My understanding is that this was a anti stall feature. It would automatically apply down pitch when the situation was detected. However in at least some installations it could be fooled by a single failed angle of attack sensor. No flight control system of this sort should have such a single string design.
There have been many reports of other flights having issues with this system but the pilots knew to disable it. Hence Boeing has been trying to claim it is a training issue.
The MAX-8 has only been out less than a year. The one that went down only had 12k hours on it.