To save people the reading, the safety feature triggered was an automatic dive maneuver initiated by the flight computer as a result of an incorrect angle-of-attack sensor reading causing the plane to believe it was in a stall, when it actually wasn't
I didn't look into it any further, but based on that alone I would agree that this seems like a shitty feature, perhaps a loud alarm or other warning would be more appropriate than putting the plane in a dive without human intervention
The 737 is a short and stubby airliner with its center of thrust far below the rest of the aircraft. The 737MAX version added upgraded, powerful engines. It is theoretically possible for the engines to flip the aircraft up and out of control if power is applied too quickly in certain fight situations.
You can still disable the stabilizer trim from switches in the cockpit, though. This was in the checklists that the pilots had, and done by other pilots in that aircraft in the days before the accident.
Yeah, it's hard to make the argument that a recovery procedure is so incredibly difficult and obscure when several previous flights of that plane experienced the same issue and successfully followed that procedure... And apparently without considering it extremely outside of the norm.
I didn't look into it any further, but based on that alone I would agree that this seems like a shitty feature, perhaps a loud alarm or other warning would be more appropriate than putting the plane in a dive without human intervention