Which approach do you think is most effective for hiring top talent?

All of the above - I'd suggest adding time and patience as factors to hiring top talent. Skills are one thing but fitting with your culture / and finding the correct early stage hire takes a lot of trial and error. But on that list I think if you want top talent - you need to pay for it.

E) All of Above :)) What is my experience is that hiring a top talent is depend on several parameters. Salary, career options, access to talent pool etc. So, it is not easy do define with only one step.