holding Command-R on my iMAC doesn't start the macOS recovery utility on Monterey

If you have an M1 Mac, then this is normal behavior. If you want to use any special boot modes on an M1 Mac, then see this Apple article:

Use macOS Recovery on a Mac with Apple silicon - Apple Support

When posting please let us know the model year Mac and which CPU it has, remember we have no other way of knowing unless you tell us.