Finally an article to solve the monad mystery!

Monads as a Programming Pattern
This article is written from a programmer’s perspective, where a monad is a software engineering pattern. Like other patterns, you may have already used it without knowing it was the monad pattern. There is still value in studying such patterns, because then you can use it more fluidly. There is a mathematical category-theory definition, but you can use them effectively without understanding that (so don’t @ me, Brendan).
https://samgrayson.me/2019-08-06-monads-as-a-programming-pattern/
By Samuel Grayson

Umm. Well. I don’t know. Maybe have to read it again.