This might be true, but one of the under-appreciated benefits of Kubernetes is the control around deployments. 3 services and a queue isn't much... unless you

This might be true, but one of the under-appreciated benefits of Kubernetes is the control around deployments. 3 services and a queue isn't much... unless you have high uptime requirements, need to maintain capacity during releases, want a careful rollout process, etc. It's possible to orchestrate complex release flows without an orchestrator, but it's often easier with one.