Now instead of just querying the goddamn database, a one line fucking SQL statement, I have to deal with the user team

Exactly, you understand very well the purpose of microservices. You can submit a patch if you need that feature now.

Funnily enough I'm the technical lead of the team that handles the user service in an insurance company.

Due to direct access to our data without consulting us, we're getting legal issues as people were using addresses to guess where people lived instead of using our endpoints.

I guess some people really hate the validation that service layers have.