I think the publicity that the max has generated over the last few weeks especially since the grounding, could kill the airframe off... there may be no way back for it. The public are very powerful and could refuse to fly on it even after Boeing has "updated IOS" or whatever they are doing, I personally wont be going near one with my family even after its "fixed" and i fly for a living, so joe public will be even more cautious.
I honesly think its crazy that we are now in a situation where a plane is crashing and we are saying we need a software update... its gone too far.
People except humans make errors and pilots sometimes screw up, what they wont accept is software in charge of their lives