I've gotten fed up of trying to explain this to people. The tldr is that the most reasonable interpretation of events is that the 737 Max without MCAS is not certifiable without MCAS (or at least a better thought out modification to the control feel system). There is no particular requirement for aircraft on the same type certificate to "handle" the same way. For an extreme example look at the Cessna 500 series. The CJ4 has a note in its pilot operations hand book that it is high performance and is basically at the limit of what a single pilot can handle.
That's precisely contrary to my point. The available evidence is that the 737 Max did not meet the certification requirements for force vs pitch. As such no amount of extra training would have sufficed to make it a certifiable aircraft.
I appreciate that Boeing themselves have made this difficult by their PR line that MCAS makes it fly like other 737s. If you have ever been involved in something like this being managed in the public perception you'll understand this is pretty typical of how technical issues are dumbed down for public consumption. In this case it also happens to be technically correct, in that other 737s have certifiable behaviour in this flight regime, so MCAS makes it fly more like them.
The control forces have to to always increase linearly into a stall, theres no amount of training that will allow for anything otherwise. The aircraft is not certifiable without MCAS.
