Yeah, I don't think there's really a best approach here. I know where I work right now, we have this giant java app that is just a nightmare to even get running

Yeah, I don't think there's really a best approach here. I know where I work right now, we have this giant java app that is just a nightmare to even get running. I've been working on the microservices, and they do have all the downsides you're talking about, but I can get that stack up and flying super fast, whereas this giant java app takes 3 minutes to even be (barely) functional, and has so many configuration options that out of this 1000 line config file it's hard to find the 3 things you might actually care about.