Actually the opposite. Had 737MAX gone the way of 777, there would have been no MCAS - but it would involve significant rework of control system, new avionics, and a lot of training.

The core difference is that even the original 777 is a Fly-By-Wire system with programmed behaviour, in fact it was a well known case study in building civilian safe FBW systems.

Because of that, there's no need to "patch over" differences like it was done with MCAS, as the minute adjustments can be done across the whole flight envelope protection system that is already there since first 777. In fact, 787 controls are derived from that and use software adjustment extensively in order to make control surface generate less drag yet still be usable.

Not sure why you're being downvoted because this is exactly what went wrong with the 737MAX.

The 777 is Fly-By-Wire so it never felt like anything other than what it was programmed to feel like.

No, wrong. The MAX did not behave like its predecessors.