I agreed with your point(s) until it came out that Boeing disabled key parts of the system and didn’t inform the FAA or the airlines. Unforced error. The lawyers are going to have a big chunk of Boeing before this is over.
Oh bologna, this was an automatic trim malfunction. Pilots don’t need automatic trim to fly the airplane, the mechanics of how the automatic trim functions is not of any more concern to pilots than the mechanics of how the cruise control works on a drivers car. The primary thing for safety that a pilot needs to know about the automatic trim is how to turn it off it malfunctions, just like a driver needs to know how to turn off the cruise control on their car if it malfunctions.
The lawyers may be able to convince a bunch of people who don’t know crap about airplanes to give them a bunch of money. That is what has basically strangled general aviation into oblivion... lawyers convincing idiots that airplane manufacturers should pay the victims of incompetent pilots a bunch of money. When I see the way people here have fallen hook line and sinker for this nonsense it scares the hell out of me.