Have you ever experimented with the Block Grid, as it could be exactly what you needed?
Also if you’re using viewcomponent to render your block, you could make something like:
return View($"MyViewName_{Position}", model) so a different view is rendered based on the position you have selected
Otherwise, your solutions could also work, only the first one basically gives three exactly the same Models and mostly the exact same Block back, which seems quite overkill. If between those two I’d create a “Image Position” property for that matter.