This particular airframe was built in 1998, so this likely has more do do with whomever is providing the maintenance than it does with Boeing’s shockingly bad recent QA issues.
Boeing is writing the maintenance manuals.
Was writing them, and is (maybe) still updating them. i am no fan of Boeing as it is or has been for some time, but I doubt the maintenance manual sections related to body panels on a 90s-vintage 737-800 have been updated particularly recently. In the only (low res) photo I’ve seen of the damage it looks like metal fatigue or maybe some kind of strike damage. In the former case it’s quite likely the operator’s fault, in the latter it’s the fault of providence, one or more gods, or a suicidal bird. Regardless it’ll still damage their holy stock price, even if the reporting is shoddy.
We don't know, if the manuals has a checklist to look at points for fatigue, and a bolt there is not listed for the right intervals, or the part was changed and a spare part was bad, then it's still Boeings fault.
I'm not saying it is, we don't know. I just would not blankly wave this away as "This is clearly not Boeings fault".
Sorry, you might know, I don't know you and didn't want to belittle you, so with "we" I've meant me and the clueless public.
I never said anything like “this is clearly not Boeing’s fault”, I said it likely isn’t the fault of their recent QA issues, as in I’d bet money on this being someone failing to inspect and replace a part on schedule over it being a poorly made part of recent manufacture, or for that matter a badly specified maintenance schedule. Of course I could be wrong, but my guess is that when the full report comes back the onus will be on whomever didn’t follow the schedule rather than on the OEM.