It only works if it flies under the radar. I don't see that happening here. The second they rename the planes there's gonna be lots of articles written about it, and many people are gonna be thinking "the newest model 737s are unsafe", regardless of what that model is actually called.

If they just drop the MAX branding, it'd immediately get lost amongst all the other 737 variants.

With the risk that people take none.

in 2018.