Fair point. Kubernetes seems to have been designed as a system to abstract across large physical machines, but instead we're using it in "right-sized" VM environments, which is solving the exact same set of problems in a different way.

Similar to how we developed a language that could use many cores very well, and compiles to a single binary, but we use that language almost exclusively in environments that scale by running multiple instances of the same executable on the same machine, and package/distribute that executable in a complicated tarball/zipping process.

I wonder if there's a name for this, solving the same problem twice but combining the solutions in a way that renders the benefits moot.

There are no sysadmins though in the new model. There are teams of engineers who code Go, do kubernetes stuff and go on call. They may occasionally Google some sysadmin knowledge. They replace sysadmins like drivers replace the person in front of the Model T waving a flag. Or pilots replace navigators.