1. Imperative Management

kubectl create is what we call Imperative Management. On this approach you tell the Kubernetes API what

you want to create, replace or delete, not how you want your K8s cluster world to look like.

2. Declarative Management

kubectl apply is part of the Declarative Management approach, where changes that you may have applied

to a live object (i.e. through scale) are "maintained" even if you apply other changes to the object.