The rewrite approach is definitely painful but that can at times also stem from failures in previous attempts at moving from monolith to services. The problem u

The rewrite approach is definitely painful but that can at times also stem from failures in previous attempts at moving from monolith to services. The problem usually arises because there's no real definitive structure or architectural choices around the breakdown. It's a very ad-hoc thing that results in building an even more brittle system. When you start to breakdown the monolith you may end up with 10 services all using different databases, message queues and message formats. Going the whole rewrite approach usually involves defining an architecture and single uniform approach to development which eventually leads to higher productivity since it eliminates choice and lets you focus on the important tasks. I do however agree that not everyone who does it needs to.