In my opinion public exit has been twisted 180 degrees. The reason for a company going public is to raise capital that individuals do not have to expand the business - build new factories, hire or whatever. After all there is much more money distributed in the public than few individuals have and in exchange you get shares in the company.

I don't think GitLab is in need of that, what a lot of companies are doing now when they go public is just a method of 'cashing out'. When you have a great product as a private company your income comes from the users and you tailor and improve your product for their needs. When you go public in the above sense you're cashing out and suddenly the users shift to a product and shareholders are now what you cater for while trying to milk your 'users' as much as possible without them quitting.

I disagree with this characterisation.

Gitlab is losing money. They do need the capital.

While it's true sometimes shareholder interests can lead to the users getting screwed, that's a very short term and dangerous game to play. It's the equivalent of killing the Golden Goose. Companies that play that game may find themselves out of business in short order. They're opening opportunities for the competition.