gitlab.com is a fine compromise, albeit I'm not a fan of their "private repos for free" model, it means a lot of software that might have utility if it were default-open will be lost behind default-privte repositories.
But if gitlab jumps the shark like github is doing we can always have anyone in the ecosystem selfhost a clone, albeit we would need to reimplement all the enterprise features people want.
In my experience it was the other way around. I signed up with gitlab only because they offer free private repos. Now since I already have an account with them and I don't have to go through the hassle of setting up stuff again, I'm only a couple clicks away from putting some project in the open.