[marcc]

I agree that "the complexity of Kubernetes is overstated". Kubernetes itself is actually pretty simple, very reliable, and more mature than it seems. The complexity and challenges of Kubernetes come from all of the add-ons that may not be necessary in most situations.

Vanilla K8s is pretty good. But when you think about admission controllers, policy engines, service meshes, progressive rollout, etc, you are increasing the scope.

Start with k8s, and hold back the temptation to solve 10 other problems with 10 other projects from the CNCF sandbox. Once you have a good system running, really evaluate the complexity of each new solution with value it provides, and make a decision. Say no to most.