For my youth Venturing was a safe space to get away from all of the advancement chatter.
A Venture Patrol does nothing for the relationships between 15-17 year olds and 18-20 year olds. Youth will leave BSA to pursue those associations.
Merging with Exploring, IMHO, offers the greatest potential. All crews become posts. Harmonize award as needed, increase mobility between career exploration and the activities in venturing, have fun.
Yeah, your number three option seems the best...
Separate male and female patrols until they reach a certain age and rank (my gut says 14 and First Class, kind of like the requirement for Scouts to join and continue working on advancement.) Then combine into Venturing Patrol (name isn't important, but could be kept for legacy...)
Adult volunteers who know what they are doing, and have a passion for the specific program.
Think about who would be the majority of adult volunteers for these programs... What type of person or background comes to mind??