Being an all-remote company allows team members to choose to live and work where they want. This benefit provides folks more choices when deciding where to live and work.
Okay, but why not any of the other 190+ countries? What's so special about that one?
Its objectively better then most? Is this even in contention?
Yes. It's not only not something "objective", it also has nothing to do with the reason why it's it.
Frankly, I can't provide a detailed answer to those questions.
Normally a work visa requires a local "visa sponsor" or employer so Gitlab would only be able to offer relocation to countries where they have a fiscal presence.
"No, this is Netherlands only since this is easier for GitLab Inc. to do. We have more team members in the Netherlands and we got accepted in the local European Blue card program years ago (after a business plan review by the government, it wasn't trivial at the time I remember)."
Founder is dutch, most people are in NL, probably
CEO is Dutch and probably has a Dutch entity. Work related immigration is relatively easy for Netherlands, especially compared to USA. Recently the salary requirements have been lowered.