> You don't get copies until you need them

I know. But you do need them, and files in your work tree don’t magically disappear when you commit them in (presumably). So either you delete the work tree copy immediately after pushing it to LFS server, and duplicate the server copy every time you need to access it, in which case the file is only duplicated then but comes with elevated cost of access, or the latest copy sits around costing double the amount of space at all times.

I don't see the issue? Either you want to use Git or not. I have gigabyte-scale files in my 6-month old repo's and haven't ever run into any issues. Of course this may be because my git server is right next to my desk and I'm on gigabit ethernet ..

or just use a bare repo?