Thank you fdr, Gums, PEI 3721 and tdracer.
I started this thread because, having read the EASA report, I really did wonder why Boeing decided to use MCAS. I can see its advantages for Boeing as 'a simple extension of the STS', but as we know, without triple AoA sensors it was vulnerable to a failure. Surely simpler solutions would have been a stick nudger as required by the UK CAA on the 747 (had that been fitted to the MAX it would not have required any extra crew training) or some aerodynamic device like the 'angle grinder' devices you have mentioned.
But I guess Boeing decided that the MCAS was cheaper.
And, as hinted to by EASA and by some of you, was it really necessary to meet a regulatory requirement on stick force gradient when the aircraft may have been perfectly safe without any of these fixes?