The problem is higher-level platforms and SaaS. Once agents need feedback from deployment, CI, logs, or config tools, permissions often collapse into “full token or nothing”. Vercel is just one example.
That’s the gap I’m pointing at.
I don't have problems with permissions in any of those things you listed. Do mainly k8s based infra
What does your stack look like beyond Kubernetes and AWS? It’s hard to imagine everything there supports truly fine-grained permissions.
GCP (main), AWS/Azure (b/c customers), Jenkins/Argo
TF/Helm are IaC and run from containers, no hashicorp services
CloudSQL, why are you sending your db queries to a SaaS?
LGTM for observability
The vendors we do have are WIF'd (i.e. code & secops scanning)
WIF is the key, mature vendors are supporting WIF, and amazingly the hyperscalers are supporting each others WIFs for cross-cloud, so we can give a GCP SA, AWS perms and vice versa
It's more about specific apps than modern apps and how your org puts their infra together.
I don't have your problem, I can give my agents all sorts of environments with a spectrum of access vs restrictions