I would transfer fiat to crypto in other ways, such as BTMs, LBC, or simply earning it directly.

And how much are you looking to buy exactly? The problem is that for anyone looking to buy in any substantial volume, BTM's, LBC's, and mining all carry their own set of substantial risks, too. BTM's have high fees, large spreads, and purchase limits. LBC is fine if you're looking to buy a few hundred dollars worth, but are you really going to tell some stranger online you can wire them $10,000? $50,000? (which would probably kick up it's own can of AML/KYC concerns with your bank...) You're lucky to have an ROI if you start mining now, and it'a also a completely different can of worms than buy/hold...so that's kind of useless... How about if/when you decide to sell? What if you want to sell a portion for fiat? All the options you provide have very poor liquidity. BTM's have huge spreads and limits again, LBC poses it's own risks (and a lot of physical effort to move a small amount of coin)... mining... well you kind of can't "liquidate" unless you sold the equipment... which could break or tank in value as hashrate/difficulty rises and more efficient machines come out...

My point is, bitcoin can't grow if people can't buy it... a lot of it, and relatively easily too. I'm not talking hundreds of dollars, I'm talking hundreds of thousands of dollars. Like this business in the post. None of the methods you described allow that - Coinbase is the only real option for mid-market purchases (i.e., $10k-$100k). I do wish I could see them handle more support issues over the phone, especially for their larger customers. It's sad to see they still only go the email route and that it takes public posts to get a response... so there's that.

I understand bitcoin's whole "don't trust a 3rd party" thing... I do... it's just... well... sometimes you kind of have to... or at least want to. It's a requirement for things to grow. If people can't trust any of the businesses operating around bitcoin than what's the fucking point? I do think Coinbase could and should do a much better job on the support side of things, but as it stands they're really the only real option for many people. Part of why they're even a real option to begin with is because of things like this... so, just try and keep a positive outlook and hope things keep getting better and better. But for now, the alternatives you listed aren't really alternatives.