I've just updated the 'Software Development Forge' section of the post to reflect our disillusionment with the 'Community Edition' of Gitlab, and the inevitable diminishing priority its devs are putting on adding/improving functionality for community users. Seems their owners are prepping for acquisition, which throws the whole proposition into doubt. Luckily, there's a more ethically aligned option: Forgejo - https://forgejo.org - as a precaution, I've been running one for the past year.
Assessment of Forgejo? It's superb.
I expect we'll migrate to it imminently. Going #libre means we *have options*. No lock-in.