there's nothing stopping you from doing this but its a real game changer for an early stage startup to need a new service and the steps to getting that out is one file and an extra line in your config.
Don't choose Elixir if you just love setting up autoscaled k8s on AWS with redis, RabbitMQ and half a dozen shenanigans for a webapp that serves 10 users a day.
Elixir is my excuse for refusing to entertain the idea of an k8s cluster at work. Completely unnecessary.
k8s solve a different layer of problems, to me they are a complemental tool to elixir when there is a need for that layer, otherwise yes it is completely unnecessary.
Why would you want to deploy an Elixir app on a system that adds an unacceptable amount of latency to the network? K8s is trash for all the stupid network packets being copied from user space to kernel space and back
I've only used Elixir at small companies, and it definitely feels like a superpower. I don't doubt that the Googlers of the world have no need for the language and runtime, but IMHO it really helps a small company punch above its weight.