If you're any good at all at CDK, it's cdk8s is also a very solid clear & clean way to do kubernetes too. https://cdk8s.io/

I'm trying to make the decision for where to go with my home lab, and while Pulumi and Cue look neat, cdk8s seems so predictable & has such clear structure & form to it.

That's said the l1/l2/l3 distinction can be a brute to deal with. There's significant hidden complexity there.