Hi,
just to let you know about our advances: We got a lot of feedback over different channels and based on this feedback we have decided to go ahead with Option 4 (extending ad_form and using acs_attributes) plus some Option 1 (user exits) for the hard cases. A "feasibility study prototype" is already working. It mixes the "widgets" idea from AMS with the procedures from "attribute-proces" and adds a few maintenance screens.
We'll post the code as soon as the basic functionality is working.
Bests,
Frank