I presume that all work done on an aerodynamic solution during development of the MAX, was tempered by a constant consideration of whether or not a new certification would be required, which would certainly hamper a full and frank investigation of all options. Add to that, potential negative effects on fuel economy, and you can start to see why Boeing was strongly drawn to MCAS as a solution.
As far as the trim wheel issue is concerned, this will probably need to be resolved by added redundancy in any ‘powered trim’ system. Retrofitting larger diameter trim wheels or placing a minimum strength requirement on flight crew are both non-starters.