isolation - MAX232 does not isolate ;
ESD protection - at what level, to conform which standards ? .
Maybe later variants of MAXxx232xx are more suitable.
But all depends of target application - is this one-time installable device, or will be often attached/deattached via serial cable to different devices. Additional protection is desired anyway - transition suppressors, capacitors, some current limiting resistors. Here are often discussed transistor buffers instead 232 IC. Such buffers has pros and cons.
Due different errors 232 IC can fail, on other hand transistor receiver buffer ( common emmiter connection) is allmost unbreakable. Transistor TX buffer is other thing, hard to be RS232 compliant and... search forum.
regards