I've written my own DNS server and my own "I can't believe it's not docker compose and kind of ansible", among other more and less esoteric but consistently dubiously motivated enterprises

They all inevitably ended up with me using them for a good 1-2 years, while also gaining an appreciation for whatever I thought was over-complicated about the OSS version (not ansible tho. But maybe pyinfra.). And I learned soooo much. I can't tell you how helpful it's been both here and there while designing architecture for actual work ("this is basically just DNS") and especially in interviews, both just having something to talk about, and also having a story arc to it showing lessons learned etc. plus it's nerdy which is always helpful branding as long as you done come off too weird or boastful along the way.

There's definitely a much smaller, cleaner kubernetes hiding inside the current monstrosity.

LB, Services, pods, DNS gets you like 99% of the way there