For a lot of company and project I worked on, this is the same conclusion I came to. 99% we only need / want is docker-compose++. Things like 0-downtime deployment out of the box, simple configuration system for replica set and other replication / distribution mechanism, and that is basically it.

I which there was something that did just that, because kube comes with a lot of baggage, and docker-compose is a bit too basic for some important production needs.