Preventing memory leaks is better than restarting. Please participate in https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/3700 to help.

gitlab IS a ruby on rails app

Why wouldn't a ruby on rails solution be right for a ruby on rails app?

If the ruby on rails solution to memory leaks is to restart, then it's far better to actually get it fixed to not leak memory in the first place.

Restarting is just ignoring the issue.