I'm just an interested passenger who flies quite a lot (including some rather pleasant flights on Turkish's 737 MAXen, as it happens).
There's thousands of pilots in 737 fleets whose employers would like them to also fly the MAX, and only 34 simulators.
If those 34 simulators were deemed suitable to the task, then you probably need more of them. Cloning physical simulators not simple, but it's "just" a matter of throwing a lot of money at a production line, and Boeing will be very happy to help throw that money.
And after you've got the simulator hardware you'll need certified instructors and certified simulator maintenance people, but I suspect that's also not beyond the reach of "spend a lot of money".
But isn't the fidelity of the simulators already the topic of some debate? Isn't there, for example, concern that the simulator does not replicate the forces required to operate the trim controls? Which might have been glossed over in the past, but is now rather more serious. That's not a software fix, I would guess, but requires motors and actuators and stuff, modelling the forces of an aircraft that has yet to be flown in its final configuration.
And isn't that fidelity the crux of the emails from the Boeing technical pilot that have exercised Congress and regulators?
If that's the case the problem isn't that there are only 34 simulators. The problem is that there are zero simulators, and getting the first one certified by all the relevant parties is not going to be a trivial task. Who wants to be the regulator that signs off a simulator and a simulator programme of instruction as being "good enough"? Will European regulators accept simulators that the FAA accept, on the FAA's say so? Aren't regulators going to want sight of a lot of test flights of the definitive version of MCAS/etc in the MAX in order to calibrate and verify the simulator? What are the forces required to trim the aircraft in the scenarios we're interested in? How long to agree it all?
(Could someone clarify whether "we recommend you have a 737 MAX simulator session before flying the 737 MAX in revenue service" is equivalent to "the 737 MAX is a distinct type-rating"? I suspect the answer is "no", but how much additional training does there need to be, and how compulsory does it need to be, before it constitutes a separate type-rating?)