I have a hard time believing the statement from the fine article that the presence of the MCAS system was unknown to the pilots. I'm not a pilot, just an interested spaceflight and aircraft enthusiast, and I know about that system. There is no way that the pilots did not.

Maybe the pilots did not receive proper sim time on a 737MAX, which I believe has different enough instrumentation and automation systems to require a separate sim from the standard 737. But they almost certainly knew which systems were on the plane, and how to operate them under normal conditions.