Helm "charts" are templates that generate Kubernetes manifests. To install a chart, you provide values (for which there are defaults). For example, here [2] is the chart for PostgreSQL. The default values are in values.yaml, and the templates for each manifest are in the templates folder.
Conceptually, this even cleaner than Docker Compose, because there's zero data that isn't specific to your install: Everything else defaults to a pre-defined default.
So in the same way that the official PostgreSQL Docker image is general-purpose, you can define a completely general-purpose chart that can be used by anyone. You customize it by providing overrides.
The only downside is that you still end up with Kubernetes manifests. It's not an abstraction, it's an automation tool.
you could try linkerd. It is built with precisely this usecase in mind
Also, it was not just a question of number of files. The size of my docker-compose.yml is about 30-40 lines or so.