Conversely I recently worked with a five-person company using Kubernetes to great effect with nearly a hundred customers. Being able to just commit a new .yaml to stand up or tear down resources is a real force-multiplier.

I do entirely agree with you, I think: there are too many companies using Kubernetes prematurely, but...

It's kind of turned out okay? Because of this, the ecosystem seems to be improving and it's easier than ever for small shops to get started. And selling software that targets Kubernetes is leagues better than targeting Ubuntu or Red Hat or specific kernels.

> I'll spin up a ZK instance

If I never have to run another ZooKeeper instance again I'll die happy.