Much of this discussion continues to obfuscate some fundamental and indisputable points.
In 2019, the loss of two aircraft to the same cause within less than two years of service entry is anomalous.
Whatever one may think about automation and piloting skills, developments in aircraft technology have paralleled not only a continuous improvement in safety, but an improvement that has been worldwide and near-universal. So far, we have not seen any evidence of an actual decline in piloting standards.
This specific failure - which can barely be called a chain - has a kill probability of 0.667. A surface-to-air missile development team would dream of anything like that.
If there were more incidents of AoA-vane failure triggering MCAS, but with the aircraft being recovered, there would be strong grounds for the FTFA-fundies' argument. As it is, their case is purely speculative.