The third - the author had already kickstarted a normal recovery process by https://accounts.google.com/signin/recovery.

However, these things take a while to process.

As I commented elsewhere - if your account got hijacked - the last thing you want is for the hijacked to get back in, via some automated form.

I had to deal with exactly this nightmare scenario for a friend a few months back. Two email accounts, one from Gmail, one from another (unnamed) provider. The hijacker tried to get back in, several times (and did on the other one).

Knowing that the bar is reasonably high that only you yourself can get back in (even if it may take a few days) is very reassuring.

Trust me - if it's between waiting 2-3 days, versus having somebody get back in, pilfer all your email and commit identity fraud, I would pick the former more secure any day of the year.