This clear statement of philosophy and intent makes it easier, in retrospect, to understand what you were doing before (which I always felt was legitimate, just not what I probably would have done).

It’s interesting how that approach will span out in the long-term, too. Your “constitutional intent” approach likely will create long-term consistency based on expressible principles, but may cause short-term confusion. What I probably would have done, which is #3, and its corollary “do whatever minimizes fuss in the moment, and then make a more definitive rule later if needed” is much more likely to result in slow drift from a core ruleset over time.