We avoided Helm as well. We found that Kustomize provides enough templating to cover almost all the common use cases and it's very easy for anyone to check thei

We avoided Helm as well. We found that Kustomize provides enough templating to cover almost all the common use cases and it's very easy for anyone to check their work, kubectl kustomize > compiled.yaml. FluxCD handles postbuild find and replace. At most places, your cluster configuration is probably pretty set in stone and doesn't vary a ton.