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The first option would benefit everyone the same, but only if it was refundable.

The second would benefit the rich disproportionately, because deductions save you the deduction x your marginal rate, and so anyone paying the highest marginal rate will save more from a deduction than someone paying a low (or zero) marginal rate.

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The rich usually have some other deductions exceeding the standard deduction, so it doesn’t help them at all.

Depends on how rich they are, especially now with sharp limits on deductions of taxes and mortgage interest. You can also time it so you bunch your itemized deductions for multiple years into a single year and then take the standard deduction in the other years.

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