GitOps offers more benefits than downsides if configured correctly. It is more secure and scalable and auditable than manual apply from workstations. However it should be using short lived (e.g. workload identity), minimum privilege credentials, not broad admin level grants.

Also IaC is not just about terraform. Much of the action is usually in the kubernetes manifests via ArgoCD, flux, and etc. Good luck to anyone keeping track of all those manual helm installs, and then rebuilding or upgrading a cluster without these tools.