Likely going to be an unpopular suggestion, but might advance the 'flavour' a little.

May I suggest after the first level or two that a regular check is made to see if the player is bare foot, unarmoured, and unweaponed.

If not, they are afflicted with "Un-monk-like" for a non trivial time like two minutes, or until a condition such as the player stops moving, looks up and down 'stretching', stopped at the top of a mountain, dunk water from the deepest wells, etc.

If they have been following the ways of a monk, then the see a positive status effect so they know they are wholesome and complient.

Far too many people just using enchanted swords in the meantime and killing blow coming from fists. Several people (Dire!) cheesing it just for the creative-like flight.

Much love creator! This is a refreshing mod to see, and love the ideas going into it. I hope my suggestion might spark something.

This would also help with a few other issues.

I'm playing through another mod that applies debuffs as part of the progression. I had to remove my monk levels because even in armor I was still immune to debuffs.