Replacing the fulcrum lever of a Sturmey-Archer hub with something else.
To answer my own question:

Solution #2 is good.

It's possible to replace the fulcrum arm and pulley assembly with a short guide nut (HMN420) as long as there's a cable stop somewhere on the frame.  You can also buy what S.A. calls "fulcrum clips", see catalogue linked in question above, which effectively provide a cable stop.

This combination has the advantage that it will fit into a tight dropout with deep circular lips that impede the fitting of the fulcrum arm and/or the pulley assembly.

ADDITIONAL INFO: Tony Hadland in his supplement to The Sturmey Archer Story mentions that a different, but similar hub, the Sprinter would work with/out the fulcrum arm, so this is a use-case which S.A. has tried to address for some time:


  The Sprinter used the same shell as the 5-StAr; and like the 5-StAr,
  had the same ratios as the S5 series. However, the Sprinter's
  arrangements for routing the toggle chain into the hub were novel in
  that there were four options: the traditional flared wheel nut; or a
  "gear selector pulley" in a housing which slid over the wheel nut; and
  in either case with or without an axle-fitting fulcrum lever/clip.
  These options were felt necessary because of the high cable tension
  necessary for single cable selection of five gears - which with an
  ordinary flared nut and banded-on fulcrum clip could give stiff
  operation and/or cause the clip to slip along the chainstay. However,
  with a brazed-on cable stop, the flared nut worked quite well.


Whether the SRF5(W) has the same concerns about high cable-tension remains to be seen. One downside to using a fulcrum-clip (e.g. HSJ513 - HSJ514, HSJ548,HSJ543) on three-speed hubs is that the cable can apparently hang loose in certain gears.  A suggested remedy is using full-length cable housing.