It seems to me the issue is not really setting up and building around K8s as an infrastructure orchestrator, afterall k8s sells itself as a cluster API which is

It seems to me the issue is not really setting up and building around K8s as an infrastructure orchestrator, afterall k8s sells itself as a cluster API which is the de facto standard nowadays. The issue starts when you need to handle very specific use-cases, e.g., security. This requires very low-level experience not only with K8s, but with the whole stack (including OS + HW) + knowledge of safe resource and application scheduling, which is hard to find talent for. PS. Edit for clarity.