I appreciate the response, but I don't follow the argument. >All of these incompatible forks need to down-integrate the change and work around the little tweak

I appreciate the response, but I don't follow the argument. >All of these incompatible forks need to down-integrate the change and work around the little tweaks they've added. You have a mess. Is that really better than having a mess without any demarcation of the software? Either way people are going to make a change. Your way involves no disincentive to making quick fix that just your team needs. Modularized codebases means that before submitting that PR or forking, you're forced to consider how this will affect everyone who uses the library. I understand your point about modularizing codebases causing more friction between teams. That's quite insightful and I haven't considered that. However, I think that gets down to a cultural issue of what do you value more, clean code that is easier to comprehend, or fostering geniality between teams.