A couple of KubeCons ago there was a talk about a "Kubernetes without Containers". The idea was to utilize Kubernetes' API and extensibility, without the necessity to run a container runtime.

I can not recall the name of the project. Would love to see whether this idea got any traction. Sounds like it would be a nice fit for a crossplane maintained infrastructure.

https://github.com/kcp-dev/kcp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaPBYUfdFE8

The team is developing the idea and has made a lot of progress. Fair warning, some of the recent progress is not accurately represented in the demos / docs.

I think the ideas behind kcp, along with this work from crossplane, is a great example of the Kube ecosystem exploring new opportunities (also vcluster and cluster api nested). Infrastructure control planes have a lot of potential advantages for streamlining complex environments for consumers.

edit: This work from crossplane is awesome because it benefits kcp which is trying to hit that next level (an example of giving back that benefits everyone)