Agreed, although there is one important difference: Red Hat isn't behind Alma or Rocky like they were CentOS (yes they did that to themselves by acquiring CentOS, but that was in the past. It was a mistake, but we have to move forward from where we are today). A lot of people knew that CentOS was owned by Red Hat and that made them a lot more comfortable using it. They kind of had to change that relationship somehow. I'm not happy at all that they did it, but I can understand why.

Option 1 above allows them to keep that "those are third parties, not Red Hat" relationship but still have the benefits of a free community build.