Yes, agreed. The fact that Boeing released an emergency airworthiness directive that advises crews of potential problems with MCAS is testimony to how important this previously unknown (to pilots) safety enhancement is, and a tacit admission that it played a role in the Lionair crash.
After Air France 449 crashed in 2009 the aircraft manufacturers sought new ways to prevent losses of control of aircraft in flight. So did the operators, through simulator training of stall recovery recognition and techniques.
The 737 Max is the latest iteration of the workhorse 737 fleet (certified in 2017, first deliveries in 2017). It’s the first generation of the 737 to have MCAS.
In this case the enhancement actually contributed to a loss of control, to at least some degree because the crew was not aware of the stall prevention system characteristics.
There was a really good article in Popular Mechanics about Air France 447, well written but without too much technical jargon:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/a3115/what-really-happened-aboard-air-france-447-6611877/
The video on this page is a little over a minute long — a good summary.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/lion-air-crash-scenario-wasn-t-covered-boeing-737-max-n935521