Earlier quoted context omitted.
"GitHub failing hard". GitLab is great, but it's kind of a copycat project. Nothing wrong with that, it's just there really isn't a compelling reason to join beyond "less-predatory pricing". And the people who care about that use private repos, not OSS.
For example, a lot of people complain about issues on GitHub. GitLab handles those much better, that could be a compelling reason to move, but somehow it doesn't seem to be enough. Private repo can be useful for early stage of OSS projects. Agreed though that it still feels too much like a clone of GitHub. The UI for example is way to close to the original.
The main thing I find extra useful on gitlab is the ability to mark a MR as a WIP.