Kubernetes has a powerful ability to alter schedule configurations, enabling it to do things such as bin-packing ( https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/scheduling-eviction/resource-bin-packing/ ), which can then make resource usage more efficient, or at least more predictable, when resources begin to spread across many nodes. There are other business cases, but these are all locked behind altering kube-scheduler's default configurations, or at least, adding new ones (under different scheduler names)