Tom, #2852,
The central issue is the certification process opposed to faulting companies or organisations, however deficient they appear to have been.
Previous safety records only contribute to past probability; just because the outcome of a flight did not involve failure does not change the underlying risk within a system, i.e. the risks involved with multiple alerts remains the same for the 737 NG, but this is different from the MAX in not having MCAS and the combination of problems to manage.
At the centre of the 737 Max problem is that the true underlying risk (MCAS) has only been established after two accidents, whereas the design and certification process and appropriate judgement of ‘grandfather rights’ should have identified it.
A failure of the design, certification, and oversight processes.