I think he means "stick free stability", as in you could let go of the stick, and the plane would be stable. I think.
and:
Extension of MCAS to the low-speed and 1g environment during the flight program was due to unacceptable stall characteristics with STS only. The possibility of a pitch-up tendency during approach to stall was identified for the flaps-up configuration prior to the implementation of MCAS.
That's a pretty clear confirmation of what we are talking about.