Nx provides a streamlined approach to versioning and publishing NPM packages within a monorepo by leveraging its understanding of project dependencies and relationships. It introduces Nx Release, a tool that automates the versioning, changelog generation, and publishing steps, and supports semantic versioning with features like Conventional Commits. Users can exclude specific packages from versioning, such as test demos, and can opt for a programmatic mode for more control over the release process. Nx also integrates well with GitHub, allowing for automatic changelog generation and GitHub releases. The tool is particularly beneficial for complex real-world scenarios, offering flexibility and precision in release management, and is complemented by community contributions like jscutlery/semver for additional functionality.