Ophie
Salingerian Phony
I'd say I fall closest to option 3, but bear in mind "the best strategies" won't be available to look up until someone works them out, so the early weeks of every generation I usually spend trying random things that I think have the potential to be good and seeing how they perform.
Leave it to folks like us then. We Johnnies are typically on the front lines for a metagame; as we're not afraid to try out ideas even when they won't work, we're the ones most likely to find something that does. Some Johnnies take pride in being the ones to shape the metagame. (Unfortunately, many Spikes are not very fond of Johnnies.)
I'll beat the game in one sitting, seeing how I have the day off and it usually takes 8-12 hours to beat the games. I'm spoiling the Pokemon right away to plan out my teams, but I don't want the game plot spoiled. Only recent game I wasn't in a hurry to beat first time through was Go.... cause it was literally FRLG but worse story
Me, my goal is to finish this game and get a team for multiplayer battling ready by Christmas.
Speaking of holidays, November 11th is Veterans Day in the United States, which is a semi-major holiday. It means a lot of people will have Monday off that week (not me though), which is four days too early for Pokémon fans.
When it comes to PVP I'm semi-serious. I only use Pokémon that I like but they do have to be somewhat useable to make my team. Masquerain won't make my team as despite liking the design it just isn't that good. And on the flipside, Garchomp won't be used by me either as I'm just not a fan however good it is.
Heh, I've been using Masquerain since Generation IV, back when its base stat total was only 420. It gets so many surprise KOs that it unintentionally became an anchor for one of my teams. It's one of the poster children for Pokémon most people write off as being insignificant.
That being said, I draw the line at folks like Castform (and even then, I put one on a Generation III team because it's cute).