Over time, the level of coupling absolutely does depend on the deployment architecture. The problem with a monolith is that developers tend to follow paths of

Over time, the level of coupling absolutely does depend on the deployment architecture. The problem with a monolith is that developers tend to follow paths of least resistance and can easily introduce cross-codebase dependencies by autocompleting or C&P, resulting in a degree of coupling that is very hard to undo, and slows down all sorts of future projects (fixing bugs in shared modules, upgrading stuff, etc.). With separately versioned and deployed services, a developer can't overwrite some global variable because they are in a rush and it's the quick and dirty solution. They may need to ask the owning team for an OK to introduce a new endpoint, run the design by them, code review, etc. This tends to lead to better designs. Overall it can still lead to complicated system but I think the extra guardrails are a net benefit.