This was one of the main reasons I moved from bitbucket to gitlab. I hit my 50 mins in a week and was completely disappointed. After using gitlab for a year I’m really glad I left bitbucket. Gitlab has a great product.
I think the main reason they don't try is for Atlassian the enterprise market is the most important market. How many enterprises really care about the free tier?
Also aren't free tier customers the most costily in terms of support, etc?
50 mins seems perfect for a trial to see if you want to purchase it.