Yes, and I would add, the pressure on Boeing to make the MAX and legacy 737's the same type rating was driven by airlines' motivation to lower training costs, since crews would be unavailable for revenue trips while in training, and simulators would have to be built for the MAX type, and there would be an entirely different monthly bid for the flights in the MAX, a separate instructor cadre, flight manual, etc...
So Boeing went along with the airlines' demands to keep the customer (the airlines) satisfied. If they didn't, the airlines might have bought airplanes from Airbus.
Plenty of blame to go around for both airline management practices and Boeing.
Airbus would have cleaned Boeing's clock in sales if the 737 Max had a different type rating.
Boeing dragged its feet on a 737 replacement. When Airbus upgraded the 32X series with the NEO, Boeing knew it needed to play catchup.
Boeing really needs a clean sheet re-design of the 737. The airframe debuted in 1968....and it was based on the older 707.