Or perhaps somebody will evolve Kubernetes itself into becoming simpler?

I know that's a pipe dream, but really, why does it have to be? What would have to happen for people to actually work on making existing things simpler and better factored rather than reinventing the wheel?

My personal theory is that it's largely because that kind of work simply isn't being valued highly enough. Reinventing the wheel is a much lower friction path to take and has a higher chance of being rewarded highly. It shouldn't be like that, though.