I get the trade-off of using a VM instead of a container and having K8s manage it. But v-to-v-ing an existing VM to have it be managed by K8s doesn't seem ideal. I'm a K8s fanboy, but this seems to be using K8s in a way that isn't really intended. Is there a good use case for this that I am missing?

Interesting idea, but seems pretty niech. I can't imagine a lot of people would have a need for this. If you are using this, or considering it, could you share the use case?

DevOps is a culture of aligning dev velocity and reliability incentives. A typical model is to have a single team response for a service, but it's not the only model. I think "admin rights" here is just a stand-in to say those responsible for a service should be empowered to own the service.