> When Kubernetes was in its infancy, it was quite difficult to do the PKI and etcd setup required to run a cluster - and managed services didn't exist.

I agree, but it's important to stress the fact that things like etcd are only a pivotal component if you're putting together an ad-hoc cluster of unreliable nodes.

Let that sink in.

Kubernetes is a distributed system designed for high reliability, and depends on consensus algorithms to self-heal. That's a plausible scenario if you're running a cluster of cheap unreliable COTS hardware.

Is that what most people use? Absolutely not.