> What's the really simple K8s?

It's k3s. You drop a single binary onto the node, run it, and you have a fully functional one-node k8s cluster.

You can find even more simplicity in Talos Linux[1]. Drop an ISO onto a USB, run a handful of commands[2] to generate and apply a configuration, and you've got a cluster up and running.

[1] https://www.talos.dev/

[2] https://docs.siderolabs.com/talos/v1.12/getting-started/gett...