What's unfair about it? GA pilots manage to kill themselves in twin engine planes too, fewer of them because most of them only own single engine planes in the first place, but plenty.
They make mistakes, and in particular some of these are mistakes that are more likely when you're flying for your own reasons (usually leisure) rather than because it's a job. "Get-there-itis" is an example, an airline pilot sees the weather at Nashville looks too dodgy, they confer with their colleague, then divert. "Sorry ladies and gentlemen, looks like Nashville's having some attrociously bad weather this evening, we're going to get you on the ground at... Charlotte and make alternative arrangements". But a private pilot father who promised to attend his daughter's performance this evening is damned if he'll divert and miss it, he's going to land at his intended destination. When he realises he might miss the performance by being dead, it's too late.
Yet how many crashes are due to engine failure? I have a friend who is a flight instructor on small planes, and he describes most general aviation crashes as being due to insufficient/improper preparation: not being aware of weather conditions, skipping safety checks, etc. Pressure (from passengers or the pilot themselves) to arrive at a destination by a specified deadline also play a role: a flight should always be delayed if there are concerns about weather, equipment, etc. Commercial aviation has an advantage, here: the layers of bureaucracy prevent passengers from interacting with the people deciding whether to delay or cancel a flight (I'm not even sure who makes that call: is it the pilots, or someone in a central office somewhere?).
Of course unexpected catastrophic failures do occur, but I've not seen any statistics that claim that they are a prevalent cause of general aviation crashes.
All that being said, in the case of the MAX, I find it unfathomable to blame pilot error, given the lack of training on the MCAS system.
The "operational control" is jointly shared between the pilot in command and the aircraft dispatcher. In theory, either one can cancel the flight. In practice the dispatcher does it or a shift duty manager (who may not be actually performing dispatch duties) who is the "man behind the curtain" and oversees all flight operations during their dirty duty shift. Big carriers may have several managers, assigned per region (CONUS, Asia Pacific, Europe-Trans Atlantic, etc.) but the theory is the same.
[me: licensed dispatcher & former flight ops duty manager]
