The Ducati "purists" protested the monster line because the sole purpose of the Monster line was to produce CHEAP Ducatis, to sell down market Ducatis.
Ducati was broke, again, and needed cash, again.
Ducati and Harley traded shares, Harley got tech, Ducati got marketing.
The first thing Harley marketing did was get rid of "cheap" monsters, remember "black"?
The 888 era of Ducati, til '96, still had some Taglioni in them. The '97 did not.
I am NOT a Ducati "purist", what ever that is, but I have no use for anything they have made since '96.
"Pre" '96 ducatis were designed by ONE GUY, Fabio Taglioni (nobody else did that, Taglioni didn't even work for Ducati. Taglioni was the head of Ducati NCR, an arm's length company. Fabio designed the bikes, then handed the design to Ducati to produce).
So if you bought a pre '96 Ducati you were actually buying a Taglioni. After '96 they were designed by a committee of Cigiva accountants and engineers... and Harley marketing