GitLab team member here. Thanks for your feedback.
You can learn more about the Remote Development direction in [0], follow iterations in [1] and read about the steps to integrated the client-only VS Code as new Web IDE into the GitLab DevSecOps platform [2]. I'd encourage you to try the Web IDE Beta next week on Dec 19, and add thoughts, ideas and feedback into this issue [3]. Thanks!
[0] https://about.gitlab.com/direction/create/editor/remote_deve...
[1] https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/7419