Pods can be converted to Deployments.
Added value of deployments:
Service is a way to expose a function within a cluster. Typically, one has problems setting spec.selector, as the web page gives an example with a app.kubernetes.io/name=X where it is unclear what the long name stands for. Best to stick to app: X identifier in spec.selector. There is a helpful debug page which helps identify problems.
This failed to bring up External IP. Also, Ingress is said to be frozen on kubernetes help page, so moving over to gateway which seems to be the new ingress implementation.
Default ingress is nginx with associated installation guide. One can also make Ingress use SSL/TLS with common certificate providers.