Some one just starting out is not Google. They do not have Google's problems. They do not need Google's complexity, or a dozen layers of docker/terraform/k8s bullshit.
Docker is difficult to understand in-depth, and, at least in my career, I haven't met too many people who do more than just skim a blog post and then think they know everything about Docker. This is how you get Docker punching holes in your firewall[1] and everyone acting surprised, because they a) didn't read the docs and b) have no idea how firewalls work.
Docker's interface might seem simple, but it adds an entirely new layer of complexity, with semantics only superficially understood by the vast majority of its users, and nobody ever seems to talk about Docker's negatives. A good rule of thumb might be: if you can't accurately explain how Docker works under the hood, or if you don't understand the OS components Docker itself uses, you shouldn't use it.
Agreed, instead of "a dozen layers of docker/terraform/k8s bullshit" they just need they application code and some config that will take them an hour to setup once.
Even if you don’t need HA it’s still worth it for a small team for ease of deploy.