Nice observation and beautiful thoughts from you 👌 👌 👌! As far as functionality and aesthetics are concerned, I'd go with your choice. But for practical purposes I'd pick the no. 9 if it is easy to use. [Isn't there any bike rack that comes with a personal locker to hold biker's belongings?😉]

Though that crowdy & congested hoarding in no. 9 doesn't look beautiful but seems to be more practical to me to hold huge no. of bikes 🤔. However, in my country one rarely encounter any bike racks. The bike parkings are generally called cycle stands here and are mostly manned (man power is quite affordable here). The person in charge there would guide you to park and even arrange all bikes in order to make way for other incoming bikes and will take care of its security all day.

But yes, it has its own problems 😳. Just for an idea, I'd like to quote the cricket commentator Mr. Navjot Singh Siddhu's funny comparison of fall of quick wickets of Indian cricket team:

The way Indian wickets are falling reminds me of the cycle stand at Rajendra Talkies in Patiala...one falls and everything else falls!

And when a cycle falls, you can expect some dents or loose screws to take care of when you return to pick it up 😭. But it doesn't mean it's same every where. Some rare places have come up with better systems. e,g. smart Namma Bike Share system of Bangalore. I'd love to see better biking infrastructure to evolve quickly here. Your post sure is an inspiration to that end!👍