Ability to enforce code review (allow users to approve merge requests but not push directly) has been demanded since 2014 [1] with no support from Gitlab. However, it looks like there's now a chance it's coming soon. [2]
[1] https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlabhq/issues/6432 [2] https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/merge_requests/4220
it's an immensely useful feature. once again, the more i can define a process in software, the better it is for most non-western, non-modern-management companies.
A code review tool that's off by default and trivial to bypass in your sleep is a poor code review tool.
This is easy to prevent in Phabricator, which will block pushes to master if they contain changes not also present in an approved unit of code review. I run into that wall a few times a week, and am reminded to move my commits into a branch.