You forgot method 4: Sell/trash self bricking cards and buy one that doesn't brick itself after a certain date. Planned obsolescence should never be tolerated. Don't buy that crap. Buy a better card. Even an original R4 (they're all clones technically though. ) or an AceKard would be preferred.
I wouldn't trash a card that can be made to work well. And selling it is really just perpetuating the scam card. I definitely agree, don't buy the card. I'm still (every long once in a while*) toying with trying to bypass the time bomb. Even if I ever do get it fixed, I would recommend people to not buy the card. Like Barnwey said, it's actually a good card otherwise.
I'm likely to get a AceKard (or similar) whenever the whole magnet + ds card is stable. Would still like to hack the r4isdhc and make good use of it regardless of what happens.
* In fact, this thread sparked a Reddit thread which noted an updated R4i-SDHC menu that's also patched (it has a time bomb too?---I know it's designed to fail to load on "fake" r4isdhc cards). The patched version loads but games don't start. And patching r4isdhc's R4.dat the same way causes the same problem (although it crashes sooner). *sigh*