How is MS a monopoly when it comes to workspace tools? Seems to me there are plenty of alternatives and I am lucky enough that I never had to use it at work.

If your org uses Microsoft products, typically a Teams license is baked in (or at least was at some point). So when it comes to choosing a better tool vs Teams it is an easy decision for the bean counters - we're already paying for Teams, let's just use it.

For sure - maybe I read GP in bad faith, but I understood it as “we have to choose Teams in my org because it’s a monopoly”

Few things frustrate me more than being forced into an unproductive situation - completely kills my motivation.

I'm sure I could've worded it better, but the bottom line is we are an org that uses Microsoft - Azure, C#, etc.

Other options had no shot