> This argument I'll buy, but there is a lot of really good work going into orchestration like kubernetes which makes a lot of these concerns much lower.

Can you explain more how kubernetes help with distributed transactions? I was aware they are more of a management system for microservices, not something that handles db transactions.

I've found splitting a monolith into microservices very painful because it prevents you from easily having all-or-nothing db commit semantics. It's a lot easier to wrap your entire RPC/API endpoint in a single db transaction than it is to issue multiple commits (e.g. an RPC to a microservice that writes) and worry about the large number of states that can result if your endpoint crashes mid-way.