I think that there is not a definition of the Monad trait - not just undesirable, not possible - that can abstract over all Futures and Iterators as implemented

I think that there is not a definition of the Monad trait - not just undesirable, not possible - that can abstract over all Futures and Iterators as implemented in Rust. You would have to use some kind of trait object & lose the incredible inlining benefits that Rust gets from how these interfaces are designed today. This is separate from effect systems, which I never said was not possible. rpjohnst's parallel response sums up the key differences between monads and an effect system.