01 The honest position
Kubernetes is the right answer when you already run one, when you have enough distinct services to justify the scheduling, or when expensive capacity has to be shared between teams with competing priorities. It is the wrong answer when you have one application and two servers.
We are entirely willing to tell you that on the first call. A platform you did not need is an outage source you did not need either, and the number of organisations operating a cluster because it seemed like the professional choice is not small. Talking clients out of one is a service we provide at no charge.
Where it is the right answer, the work that matters is not the installation. It is everything after: upgrades that do not break things, capacity that scales down as well as up, and somebody who answers when it does not.
Usually bought as an ongoing arrangement, not a project.
A cluster built and handed over drifts within two quarters. Most clients take the design work and the operational agreement together, with a named engineer and a written availability commitment.