I think author is totally ignoring the maintenance overhead that kubernetes comes with compared to ECS. Getting up and running with the most complex Kubernetes setup is easy for a long time now. For that, there are tons of CLIs that would boot strap a cluster in a cloud and if not that, you have very actively maintained Ansible playbooks and what not.
It is the upgrade path where the friction comes from.
True. upgrades is a huge overhead. But you also have K8s management tools for that where they manage upgrades for you. I know it's added cost, but worth the benefits.
Exactly. With being cloud portable you can take advantage of the pricing and new features that come with other cloud providers. Hetzner is for sure growing in popularity a lot.
It is the upgrade path where the friction comes from.