Yes I am familiar with the monarch project. I also understand their motives (at least I hope I do) and I feel that these Vitalik Buterin tweets are for a reason and on purpose.
I've never liked anything about ETH ever since I heard JP Morgan and Microsoft at all about it with there stupid "Alliance"
It's certainly starting to look that way.
Never a fan of ETH either. EOS will overtake it anyway, but that's a whole other topic.