Modular monolith: the overlooked middle ground?

i've become a big proponent of the modular monolith as an often-overlooked middle ground, especially for startups or teams that prematurely jump into microservices. i've seen too many systems devolve into distributed monoliths with complex deployment pipelines and shared databases that negate the benefits. with a modular monolith, you can enforce strong module boundaries, often through build system checks or strict ownership, and even go as far as having a separate database schema per 'module' within the same database instance. it keeps deployment simple initially, and you only break out services when a module genuinely needs independent scaling, technology, or team ownership. the key is discipline around module interfaces. what are people's experiences with this, particularly around strategies for managing module dependencies and data ownership?