Do you think location based pay aligns with Gitlab's values?
If a business can't sustainably operate by strictly adhering to their values, is the business sustainable or are the values broken? Is it all a fool's errand? I don't know. It doesn't seem worth closing the book on GitLab for.
(I don't know the details but my impression is that GitLab feels very pressured to minmax their monetization strategy to be able to compete with GitHub. I don't see a viable alternative for them. If they're super profitable and I'm talking out of my ass, let me know.)