I'm not suggesting that dropping the nose isn't the first action to be taken. My point that increasing the thrust (which is going to try to pitch the nose up) is part of the standard response to a stall (particularly at lower altitudes).

Of course but if you're recovering from a stall you're going to be very aware of where the aircraft is pointing. You're not going to let the aircraft pitch itself up on you if you're in the middle of telling it to nose down. The danger with pitching up is that the pilot and copilot might be absorbed in some other tasks during a climb and not notice it leading to a stall. That's not really a big of a risk in grand scheme of things but it's still a risk and that kind of maneuvering gets customers complaining. The solution was using MCAS to detect the conditions prior to that kind of stall and deal with it.