No, I do not believe it is a "decade long" bait-and-switch.

I believe it is an opportunistic bait-and-switch.

I don't know exactly what's going on at GitLab, but this is a classic pattern when the motivations of founders ("Let's make something cool to help other coders, and make a buck in the process") are supplanted by the motivations of VCs ("Fuck the coders, lets make as much money as possible in the term.")

Edit: Can add to that second sentence "...and exit just after the profits tick-up, but before the market has enough time to migrate off our platform.")