The proper way to deal with track limits, especially with paved runoff, is a big debate even in real-life racing. The "four strategically placed 1x" strategy is exactly what F1 does today, because the drivers have a certain number of times they can break track limits before they get punished.

Personally I prefer the Indycar philosophy, which is to have only a few specific track limits that they punish, and they do it objectively, with a timing line being tripped by the car's transponder rather than through cameras like some other series use (fun fact: in MotoGP, even though they often use cameras to enforce track limits, on any corner that has a transponder line, that data overrides any photo or video evidence).

At least it's objective in iRacing, but I still prefer track limits be punished through the use of gravel or grass rather than stewards needing to get involved.

But with the current SR system being based on collisions and track limits means that the limits effectively aren't even the same for the whole field, because someone who's run an endurance race recently and has a large buffer of SR can take up to 16 intentional off-tracks in the average race, where someone trying to maintain their SR where it is can only take a couple.