[dirteater_]

If you try to use every single feature of Istio, sure. If you just need encryption it's not that bad. And it looks to be getting better (no more sidecars, eventually).

[Yasuraka]

If you just want automatic mTLS, LinkerD is an option.

Ultimately I hope to go with Cilium and I hope the recent news around OpenTofu are enough to dissuade Cisco from trying anything funny