It's been a while but iirc my primary issues weren't about configuring a small project, it was the effort of setting up and administering a k8s cluster that was the problem.
With docker-compose you realize you need a persistent volume and go "volumes: ..." and you're good.
With your own k8s cluster you go, "okay I need a persistentVolumeClaim to a PersistentVolume with a particular StorageClass that my cluster needs to offer". Then you go learn the "Right Way" to set up a StorageClass and 2 hours later you finally have a persistent volume. Repeat every time you try to do something that would be one line in a docker-compose file.
If you have easy access to an administered k8s cluster then kubernetes becomes way more approachable. What would be ideal for me is an offering that presents itself as a batteries included k8s cluster running on your local machine. That way I could make pod definitions and run them without having to understand k8s internals while gaining the option of deploying on a real cluster in the future.
Setting up kubernetes is easy with kubeadm. There are other distros like k3s, but I don't have personal experience with them.
For storage, just use hostpath volume and that's about it. You don't need to deal with PersistentVolumes at all. I never used named docker volumes, honestly, and I don't understand why they're useful, I always prefer to explicitly specify disk location, so I can back it up, etc. PersistentVolumes are useful, when you have separate storage system and full-fledged multi-node cluster, but for simple setup, there's nothing wrong with hostpath volume, IMO. Just don't forget about backups.
With docker-compose you realize you need a persistent volume and go "volumes: ..." and you're good.
With your own k8s cluster you go, "okay I need a persistentVolumeClaim to a PersistentVolume with a particular StorageClass that my cluster needs to offer". Then you go learn the "Right Way" to set up a StorageClass and 2 hours later you finally have a persistent volume. Repeat every time you try to do something that would be one line in a docker-compose file.
If you have easy access to an administered k8s cluster then kubernetes becomes way more approachable. What would be ideal for me is an offering that presents itself as a batteries included k8s cluster running on your local machine. That way I could make pod definitions and run them without having to understand k8s internals while gaining the option of deploying on a real cluster in the future.