The wings of the A320 have more ground clearing than the 737 NG. Airbus could easily fit the larger and more efficient engines. Boeing had to move the engines slightly before the wings (or face an expensive complete redesign). The resulting different flight behavior would have required a new type rating (which is expensive). Instead software (cheap!) was used to correct for the different behavior.
This is not an indication on other aspects of the A320 vs. the 737 MAX.
And remember that on the Boeing 737 Classic and NG that the engine nacelle has been non-circular and been running with smaller fans than other aircraft with similar engines: engine size isn't a new problem with the MAX, it's been a problem since the move to high-bypass engines.
The problem was not that the redisign was expensive - we are talking about trillion dollar market here but that it was slow - clean sheet = 10 years. Making an octopus by nailing four more legs to the old 737 5-6 years.
I am fairly certain that if boing could have solved the timing issue by throwing money at it they woyld have done so.
This is not an indication on other aspects of the A320 vs. the 737 MAX.