Question related self powered USB Hub
If you are willing to sacrifice one of the hub ports, FTDI has devices that talk UART over USB and have a bunch of IO-lines on them that support bit banging, ready to use. Advantage is that is only a single chip and most operating systems have drivers available.

I believe it is this one: http://www.ftdichip.com/Products/ICs/FT232H.htm

That way you can use one of the hub's USB ports to connect to the chip that can be programmed to control the outputs.

From the datasheet:

Bit Bang Mode.


  The 2 nd generation device has a new option referred to as “Bit Bang”
  mode. In Bit Bang mode, the eight UART interface control lines can be
  switched between UART interface mode and an 8
  - bit Parallel IO port.


Would be a nice fit with your option #2