External Monitor not detected after upgrade to Mojave 10.14.5

I have a MacBook Air 13-inch, 2018. I updated the software to Mojave 10.14.5 and the laptop has stopped recognizing the external monitor after the update. Is there a way out of this mess?

I've hit the same wall with both my old and new Mac Minis when I upgraded to 10.14.5 this week. They're both ok with the HDMI cable to the monitor (so at least one is useable), but don't play nice with the HDMI/VGA adaptor/cable that I've also used to enable a second feed to the screen.

Screen sharing between them is the only workaround, and I note this an issue with Mojave that pre-dates 10.14.5 (such as here https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8625812 and here https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/no-signal-on-external-displays-after-mojave-update-2018.2128056/).

If you are using a non-apple adapter, the solution is to use an official apple adapter/dongle.

I have always used a monoprice mini display to VGA and always worked, when I did a clean install of Mojave, the monitor did not get any signal from my MBP

I confirmed that both the adapter and monitor are working by plugging in another computer.

So, I borrowed an official apple dongle from a friend to test and it worked.

This is clearly something that was done via software maybe to push us to buy dongles from apple.