If this follows the lead of their acquihire and is a marketplace for upscale freelancers it could be a neat one to watch. The referenced competition has a very different price curve and tends to be a race to the bottom, while linkedin (despite their best efforts) is (at least for now) a network of real people, like facebook 10+ years ago. Their profile is the resume from which you would qualify and hire, and it's already one of the best ways to find a permanent candidate so it makes sense to push into different work arrangements.
The same person that can make a living on low balling web programming contracts on other sites can make a LinkedIn profile and do it there, too.
What I have found interesting while doing some recent interviews for full time, remote developers is people are basing salary expectations on the top labor markets, not the ones they reside in. If you are operating out of a marginal marketplace and have gone remote because of the pandemic, this can take you by surprise if you think "now I can hire people anywhere".
My second point contradicts my first point, to the extent they overlap.
Really, though, if one believes in marketplaces setting a price and some person is willing and capable of doing my job for 1/3 the cost, who am I to complain? There are many factors that play into being willing to accept the downsides of working with a team in an opposite time zone but to the extent that people are willing to deal with this, I say go for it. That's the world we have built and must now live in.
It makes me wonder why authorities have not caught up with those sites that essentially operate like Uber, except that you don't drive a car but do software development. I think it is worth raising awareness so that people get paid minimum wage and get all benefits associated with being an employee and pay correct taxes.
