Well I can't answer for other projects, but libcloud specifically is in Python, and kops is in golang. But you raise a valid question: why not use a cloud abst

Well I can't answer for other projects, but libcloud specifically is in Python, and kops is in golang. But you raise a valid question: why not use a cloud abstraction library like libcloud - for example embedding terraform. It would definitely short-cut things, but the trickier piece IMO is figuring out what cloud resources to create, rather than making the API calls. Embedding terraform might save a little time up front, but would also make it harder where terraform didn't work quite the way we wanted it to (the state store), or even if we hit any bugs. The Kubernetes experience with Salt was not overly positive in this regard (though this was likely more because of how we were using it than Salt itself). It is possible to build a kops cloud implementation that doesn't do direct-to-cloud-API-calls, but instead just outputs terraform - that would be faster - but you would still have to figure out the right way to run Kubernetes on cloud X. Most of the work is in doing that!