GitLab has always demanded too much faith from its users.

First with CI, it was the all-or-nothing approach where you couldn't use GitLab CI with any other provider. Lately they have tried to fix this but it was a half-hearted development after a lot of complaints.

Lately with their DevOps approach, it's exactly how you've said.

I don't have trust in GitLab leadership and their product feels way too bloated.