My memory is pretty hazy, but I believe GitLab began as a simple Git hosting program for people to be able to run on their own servers, and it started without serious intent to build a money-making product. BitBucket Server didn't exist yet (and even today, it's just Atlassian Stash renamed, IIRC.)
When they went to launch GitLab.com, they probably did more product research at that point, and that's probably where the disappointment came in.
I think GitLab's approach is pretty cool, and software toward developers really ought to be developed in this manner: start with the problem, then work on the product. No point in trying to build a product for a problem you can't solve. GitLab today is certainly a better product for being heavily oriented around solving developer's problems; for example, having GitLab CI built-in and even usable for free even on private repositories on GitLab.com is incredible, and it's one of those things that are going to continue to be enticing as GitHub increases the competition.
I can't imagine it will be long before Azure DevOps is integrated in some way to GitHub. They don't even have to introduce it as such...just a thinly veiled mask for job running. Or even Azure Functions doing the work. MS has the advantages with having Azure behind the scenes so it will be interesting to see what they "give" it.
Bitbucket was originally focused on Mercurial. At the time I think Google Code or whatever they called their Mercurial/SVN hosting was an option too. There was also Gitorious, etc. At that time even Bazaar was still being used by some prominent projects.
When they went to launch GitLab.com, they probably did more product research at that point, and that's probably where the disappointment came in.
I think GitLab's approach is pretty cool, and software toward developers really ought to be developed in this manner: start with the problem, then work on the product. No point in trying to build a product for a problem you can't solve. GitLab today is certainly a better product for being heavily oriented around solving developer's problems; for example, having GitLab CI built-in and even usable for free even on private repositories on GitLab.com is incredible, and it's one of those things that are going to continue to be enticing as GitHub increases the competition.