If the goal is to actually package and distribute the changes via import hook, that makes the supply chain attack question particularly relevant. And it still doesn't explain why you couldn't just package and distribute the monkeypatch itself, instead of creating a whole new import ecosystem surrounding hooks.
I've done my fair share of that too, but I'm still not seeing the benefit vs patching.
> means if you want to make changes to a third-party package, you don't have to take on the maintenance burden of forking, you can package and distribute just your changes.
That's a big win. I've seen and done my share of `# this file from github.com/blah with minor change X to L123` etc.