You do need to understand the mechanics of monads in order to do even simple IO. E.g you can write:

    do name <- getLine
       putStrLn ("Hello " ++ name)

But you cant write:

    do name <- "Buddy"
       putStrLn ("Hello " ++ name)
 

You have to write:

    do let name = "Buddy"
       putStrLn ("Hello " ++ name)

Now try to explain that without basically explaining what a monad is.