A monorepo isn't particularly innovative, if the technical subgroups can create arbitrary subdirectories and branch ad infinitum.
Of course it's easy to work with a monorepo, when you can create a folder to stash your stuff in, bury important stuff deep in a nested tree under your home root, and then hide iterations in branches you own.
That's what every smart person does in repos they have no control over.
This isn't really news. Managing a technical code base is mostly about excluding total fucking dipshits.
Excluding total fucking dipshits is often about hiring smart people, and not exterminating their enthusiasm and optimism, so that their willingness to perform doesn't wither and die in a smothering rat race environment.
Of course it's easy to work with a monorepo, when you can create a folder to stash your stuff in, bury important stuff deep in a nested tree under your home root, and then hide iterations in branches you own.
That's what every smart person does in repos they have no control over.