I wonder how much of the monkey patching is really necessary? Recently I have looked at Rails again, and in prototype (Javascript) "function" is monkey patched to have a bind method, so you can write function.bind(object). In Mochikit you have a method bind(function, object). It is not even longer to type. Mochikit is not monkey patched - although admittedly "bind" is in the global scope. Mochikit can prevent the global scope optionally, though.

That is just one example, but I suppose it is more attitude than necessity that makes the difference here...