What is more likely? That Boeing is genuinely sorry for their enormous process failures (that others on HN have documented in great detail) to catch these product deficiencies earlier in the process, failures that have killed hundreds of people? Or the catastrophic financial losses they will suffer in the event they are forced to scrap the MAX?

I'm cynical because of Occam's razor, not because I want to be. I'd very much prefer not to be cynical, to tell you the truth.