The monkeys and the ladder are a valid metaphor for a different scenario. In the cargo-cult case, the ones who started it were copying others without understanding what they were doing and why is was not working. In the monkeys and the ladder case, the monkey did understand the problem and developed a valid solution for it, and then they keep applying it long after the problem had disappeared. So, the cargo-cult metaphor refers to stick to procedures and best practices as if they were religions precepts, while the monkeys-and-ladder metaphor is about maintaining unnecessary technical debt.