And similarly, you don't need any configuration at all to just run k8s itself, you do need to configure your application and pay attention when exposing things, but the same holds true for an OS on a single machine.
I believe the OS comparison is the most apt, both in the sense of the layer it represents, i.e. abstracting away physical machines and managing resources for applications, but also from what it means: one used to have to rewrite a program for each new computer as they were all unique (incl. CPU), just like each corp had its own way of managing infrastructure, clusters of nodes and automation.
Any new application needed to be integrated from the ground up, which might be simpler in that you only touch what you actually need, but you also have to do it every single time, and it's different for each project/corp - with the vast majority missing out on the more complex bits that don't fit into an nginx config and some shell scripts.
I believe the OS comparison is the most apt, both in the sense of the layer it represents, i.e. abstracting away physical machines and managing resources for applications, but also from what it means: one used to have to rewrite a program for each new computer as they were all unique (incl. CPU), just like each corp had its own way of managing infrastructure, clusters of nodes and automation.
Any new application needed to be integrated from the ground up, which might be simpler in that you only touch what you actually need, but you also have to do it every single time, and it's different for each project/corp - with the vast majority missing out on the more complex bits that don't fit into an nginx config and some shell scripts.