> Except with the kernel, you only have to be familiar with the system calls
I think it's safe to assume that any non-trivial use of linux involves non-default configuration.
> you don't need a team of people just to run, maintain and upgrade the kernel.
My relatively small company employed linux admins before we adopted (on prem) kubernetes. Their work has changed a bit since since then, but it isn't meaningfully more laborious.
I assume that less effort is required for cloud kubernetes offerings.