Well the complexity comes not from Kubernetes per se but that the problem it wants to solve (generalized solution for distributed computing) is very hard in itself.
Only if you actually has a system complex enough to require it. A lot of systems that use kubernetes are not complex enough to require it, but use it anyway. In that case kubernetes does indeed add unnecessary complexity.
Except that k8s doesn't solve the problem of generalized distributed computing at all. (For that you need distributed fault-tolerant state handling which k8s doesn't do.)
K8s solves only one problem - the problem of organizational structure scaling. For example, when your Ops team and your Dev team have different product deadlines and different budgets. At this point you will need the insanity of k8s.
I am so happy to read that someone views kubernetes the same way I do. for many years i have been surrounded by people who "kubernetes all the things" and that is absolute madness to me.
Yes, I remember when Kubernetes hit the scene and it was only used by huge companies who needed to spin-up fleets of servers on demand. The idea of using it for small startup infra was absurd.
