Not defending Boeing but calling the Max planes death traps is completely ignorant and stupid. The original fiasco with the Max planes was due to the pilots themselves trying to fight and overcorrect the system (which while originally flawed, was not the actual cause of the accidents), it was largely pilot error. This situation is like what, one out of millions and millions of Max flights going on since their introduction?
This is a fucked up situation but let's not say straight up stupid shit.
You and your friend are repeating the Boeing propaganda.
The pilots of Lion 610 were never informed about MCAS. Basically with the exception of Boeing test pilots, no other pilot in the world knew that a SW would take control of the horizontal stabilizer.
An internal official Boeing report said that the pilots who were facing MCAS malfunction had 10 seconds to react before it became fatal.
How do you expect 2 pilots who are getting multiple malfunctions at the same time, react correct to a situation when they don't even know the existence of the system it is triggering it?
After Lion crash Boeing issues guidelines to the pilots for such a case and they hear for the first time about MCAS.
Ethiopian 302 happens and the pilots response is correct, we know it from the black box.
They cut off the power to the trim so now MCAS cannot control the horizontal stabilizer because it doesn't get any electricity.
The pilots have to manually move the stabilizer at a correct position but plane speed is too high and it's like trying to move tons of cement with 1 hand.
It was Boeing from the beginning, they are the only ones to blame. Having a friend in the industry doesn't say shit, sorry.
We have the documents, their internal documents, that prove their intention to hide critical information to pilots.