being "skeptical of throwing full confidence at option 2 " is not the same as "demanding it be thrown out". It just means show us something more than "magic variable 'X' fits all curves."
I think what you're asking for is a lab-testable prediction from a dark matter theory. And no, we don't have that. It would be nice if we did, but we don't. We don't have it from MOND either, though, so I still don't get your denialism. If you don't want us to do science to figure this out, what are you asking for?
All those theories were merely fitting to data. Do you genuinely claim they were "unscientific"?
I repeat: the desire to reject a theory for aesthetic reasons is the "faith" side of this argument. It's OK to prefer a better theory if you have one. It's not OK to sling insults at the people who point out that it's the best theory we have.
Cosmology is not amenable to either predictions or engineering. There’s not even anything to deny.