I go for option 1 regarding music that's almost impossible to get. It is and can not be the intention of music that such goes unheard to the masses. I discovered a lot of things this way!
As for new releases, I opt for the 'Other' option, that is with permission of the artist/label or it's representative. Especially for not so established bands this is a great way to showcase their music, which will pay itself of by more people attending a gig and buying your merch there. A lot of bands already offer releases to blogs because they know they will reach their audience this way.
There's a few things to consider anyway.
everyone has a budget, you just can't buy whatever you like, so back in the days this usually meant passing on some releases (and never know if you missed out on something cool, or find out years later). Not having the funds doesn't mean you can just go out and get it, but even then we had our ways and this hasn't changed, it just became digital. This is something you can never change as long as there is a demand and a price that doesn't match.
But at least now you can actually make a better informed decision by hearing the album (instead of a few songs on myspace or whatever) before you buy it. Okay it maybe tempting to save it to your drive but in my opinion those are mostly the albums that are okay to listen to for a short time but not worth buying, so eventually you'll end up deleting them anyway. I guess no harm done since there was never any intention to actually own such an album.
For promotional purposes I think services like Soundcloud are actually a better idea to showcase a release and that kind of promotion will help a record sell better without it being available for download (geeks excluded, they always know how to download things noone else can ;-)
I, for one, prefer buying vinyl and I also by any chance from the band itself at a concert. Still I'm downloading the same album so it saves me a lot of effort transfering it because I also want to listen to it when I travel or driving my car. Don't think that's a problem since I already bought it :-) Also more and more vinyl releases come with a download code which is a good thing to keep vinyl releases up and going!
I don't think there will be an end to this discussion, you can't prevent downloads or anything else for that matter by having laws and bountyhunters chasing the bad guys. It's an issue of economics and the best way to deal with it is that the illusion of value-for-money is met because yes you will want to have the real deal with all its artwork if it's worthy to you and in a competative price!
I'm 38 if it helps your survey :-)