clever needle
i propose a boss based mob difficulty system
all the options have disadvantage to the player who wants to play at their own pace and explore to thier own requirement
option 1: would mean rushing and if you take your time building you would be punished
option 2: same thing as option 1 with a different mod
option 3: well then only time you will encounter difficulty is if you move away from spawn but thats unreliable like what if dont explore a lot
i suggest a boss based difficulty system where killing a progression boss causes a world command to go out that triggers either of the 3 mods difficulty system like terraria's hard mode with a custom text message in chat
seems fair and lets the player choose their own progression