Either way, it doesn't really matter that much. In the end, it's mostly just a personal preference.
Going multi first is just too annoying to manage and doesn't make much sense. Also, it's more repos you have to get running on your device, and more room for divergence.
It gets even worse when small companies insist on creating their own packages...
Also, I usually have a repo that is for deployment-focused stuff, like kubernetes configs. These are good reasons. I think maybe a "scripts" or "scratch file" or a mix of the two can also be its own repo, for stuff that doesn't really belong anywhere specific and isn't getting called by other code.
The question with monorepos is not if they will become a nightmare. It is when they will become a nightmare.
Making a multirepo feel like a single workspace is trivial. Making a part of a monorepo feel like a repo from a multi repo is impossible.