The way you describe it ends up being more awkward, because you have to change code to reference the new path, both in your own code, and potentially in the lib

The way you describe it ends up being more awkward, because you have to change code to reference the new path, both in your own code, and potentially in the library you've forked and other dependencies that use it. Vendoring by just maintaining a GOPATH for your dependencies that you control is the preferred way.