Following up on @ttnphns@ttnphns: it sounds like in #1 & #3, the coefficients on the $k$ original predictors are not updated, correct? This is not a version of stepwise regression I have ever seen. Every time I see stepwise regression, all coefficients are updated.
And then, as @ttnphns notes@ttnphns notes, there is no difference between choosing the new covariate that is most strongly correlated with the residuals and choosing the one that yields the largest increase in $R^2$.
(You do know that inferential statistics and hypothesis-testing are invalid after stepwise-regression unless you correct in non-trivial ways for the stepwise variable selection, right?)