[Number4]

If a guy has above average starter stuff and 3 pitches, but 27 stamina, I'd start him everytime over a meh starter with "real starter stamina" (which might be also only 40). The fewer pitches he can manage will get you farther than the more pitches the weaker starter throws. Allowing additional baserunners leads to throwing more pitches too.

And in any case, I'd rather have 5 innings of 1 run ball than 7 innings of 3 run ball. Even if i run out my long relievers for the 2 innings to bridge the weak stamina starter to where the real stamina starter would leave, they will on average end up way better.

If the AI started a guy and he threw 7 innings of 1 run ball on a realistic maximum effort amount of 87 pitches, I think it did something right.