FWIW, at my office for the small projects we have tracked, we use a similar method.

type-label

    Types:
    b - bug
    f - feature
    p - priority
    t - team

So we might have issues tagged "p-med b-confirmed t-group1"

Once there is a method to the madness, it's not bad, and it's more flexible on Gitlab's part I'm sure, to have people tag instead of supporting custom drop-down attributes.