It would be silly to install Colima for this though. If the argument is that Colima --calls--> Lima --calls--> {a ton of different things including kubernetes

It would be silly to install Colima for this though. If the argument is that Colima --calls--> Lima --calls--> {a ton of different things including kubernetes and docker and ...} --calls--> a QEMU command somewhere deep in the code, then the only thing that is required here is QEMU. Not kubernetes or any other junk on top that just adds complexity and potential insecurity. One QEMU command should be all that's required.