I've started trying to learn more about kubernetes by setting up some personal services and it seems like everything I find online points to some helm chart to

I've started trying to learn more about kubernetes by setting up some personal services and it seems like everything I find online points to some helm chart to install. I think because I don't fully understand k8s, yet, helm seems too magical. It's abstracting away what I already don't understand and doesn't feel right. For now, I've been focusing on writing my manifests and applying them with kubectl to get a feel for what's going on under the hood. Maybe a time will come where it's a tool that I'll need to reach for, though.