Our Other it team asked me to create a new repository instead of a new branch in my project just cuz they thought branching would be more time consuming than maintaining a separate repo for emergency bug fixes.

It pisses me off. When i have to use older technology or software because new technology or databases or operating system will less community support if they have that, then they'll say it's not battle tested and the best one is "its difficult to find people who know this technology" *slowclaps*
In the end you end up using almost the same thing that everyone else uses.