From the article (really an opinion piece) and addressed in comments:
Nonetheless, Boeing’s reticence allowed a narrative to emerge: that the company had developed the system to elude regulators; that it was all about shortcuts and greed; that it had cynically gambled with the lives of the flying public; that the Lion Air pilots were overwhelmed by the failures of a hidden system they could not reasonably have been expected to resist; and that the design of the MCAS was unquestionably the cause of the accident.
But none of this was quite true."
I don't know anything about William Langewiesche, but, as I read the piece, I found myself wondering about possible connections with Boeing. Maybe my suspicious mind was being unfair. (Edit: I just realized who Langewiesche is: a writer as much as a former pilot and son of the "Stick & Rudder author.)