The UI and UX to me (the author of this guide) is something that I can get used to. I leave it for the reader to decide which one they feel comfortable, I don't want to force anyone to use something they don't like. My whole purpose is to introduce what Gitlab has got and presenting them on Github.
If you're paying didn't GitHub switch up their payed plans a few years ago to allow for unlimited private repos rather than the 12 max then pay for more?
Yes. You now pay for users. Still a little annoying that there are no private repository on the free tier, as I'd like to move things over from bitbucket, but understandable given that less repositories would be open if they allowed it.