As DevOps engineer I've used and managed both Gitlab and Github extensively, and Gitlab is just so much better. Things make sense there. Shame that it's so darn expensive.
I'm one of the persons who loves refactoring existing code. It's much easier to get started than writing something from scratch. I change a few bits, then I get more ideas on how the code can be further improved. I always try to consider the business value - is the a maintainability problem? Does the code need upgrades to reduce tech debt? Etc. Hard to sell this sort of work to PMs who just keep pushing for new features.