You failed to deliver an answer to OP question. He want's to solve his problem. Instead, you provided false info. (not caused on purpose, but lack of knowledge I guess)
The OP was not looking for rank better tips, however, you still told the wrong ones.
From this last words of yours, 3rd is correct only. You can create a gmail + youtube acc tomorrow and see it for yourself.
Here's a quick guide: Youtube is all about your 3rd, good text optimization, cool thumb(subject related), and the most important view retention.
No matter of likes, dislikes, comment amount, the very 1st thing is to have as close as possible to 100% view retention = results.
So, if you know how to deliver that, obviously you will provoke attention and reactions from the users.
Basically, I can now steal any video on YouTube, spin it with random pixels (slowly) and rank 1 if I want. No need for anything else, and this method has been working since history.
Steal video, spin it to few copies, grab one copy, spin two more copies, and so on, is the most steady way of spinning. Nothing else, and you are good to go.
Buddy.... that is not what I'm saying, that is absolute state. %100 true, correct or however you like it.