It gives us the possibility to run GitLab on a very large scale. This helps us finding performance and scaling issues that otherwise would go unseen. In short, it allows us to make GitLab even better.
If this is really the case and your business model is aligned with this, there's nothing else to say, except "Congratulations!".
I didn't know that this can go so well for end-users in such a competitive environment. I hope I hear more arguments like these from other tech companies.
How do you call this model? I guess freemium doesn't match with how you make the benefit out of the website.
I guess it is freemium because most larger organizations at some point want to go on-premises (for security, legal, flexibility or other reasons) and opt for GitLab EE at that point.
It gives us the possibility to run GitLab on a very large scale. This helps us finding performance and scaling issues that otherwise would go unseen. In short, it allows us to make GitLab even better.