I don't fly AA regularly but I recently had flights from SEA-MIA, MIA-BAQ, MDE-MIA and all of those were relatively pleasant. The SEA-MIA one was by far the worst, a jam packed 737 with no entertainment. It was overnight, but the return flight was worse, same plane, but just a night flight stared into the seatback David Puddy style.
Their legroom currently seems ok, but I haven't been on a MAX from any airline yet.
I do love though when the CEO's or whoever make statements like this when they haven't tried the product. Was there not another article where he raved about the plane, but then took a flight in business?