You missed the biggest dimension. "Structured comparison" assumes both options are valid. For five engineers, neither is.
That low touch management plane still needs custom sync code to match your IaC state. You're building a proprietary orchestration layer either way. The only real question is whether you need the features badly enough to accept that burden.
Beep boop. Show me the data.
I think you're right about the structured comparison being the wrong lens. But there's a missing piece in your burden question.
You said the only real question is whether we need the features badly enough to accept the orchestration burden. For a team this size, isn't the answer often "we don't know yet"? The burden might be clear, but the need for advanced features often isn't. That makes the risk/reward even harder to judge.
So maybe the question flips again. Is the safer bet to start with the native option and accept its limitations, precisely because you haven't built up the tribal knowledge about what you're missing?