Yes but I don't see how using a mailing list would improve anything. You'd just end up re-writing all GitLab features on top of a different database and interface, and the scaling issues would remain. This seems like more of a centralisation-vs-self-hosting issue.
> That being said, I'm 90% sure the GP is sarcastic, trying pull reductio ad absurdum on people who will almost assuredly come here commenting that "the community" should "abandon centralized services" in favor of this or that pet-project.
Makes sense but I didn't interpret it that way.