Thanks for the question. Updating your instance wouldn't change your situation. Currently, the only options are what you found outlined in the documentation you mentioned.

As we build out our Cloud Offerings there may be other options, but this is what is currently available. Oftentimes, we find that people will use a local copy of FusionAuth to complete their automated testing if they cannot locate an IP address that meets our allowlisting requirements.

These challenges are expected because of the security protections in place on FusionAuth Cloud deployments. One option is indeed to self-host FusionAuth, which gives you full control over rate limits and CAPTCHA settings.

Alternatively, you could add your IP address to FusionAuth’s allowlist, which can exempt you from certain rate limits and CAPTCHA checks. Details on this approach and the requirements are documented here:
CAPTCHA and Rate Limits - FusionAuth Cloud

You have a couple of options.

If you are self hosting, use a WAF, CDN or firewall to rate limit access to FusionAuth.

If you are using FusionAuth Cloud, we have protection in place to ensure customers don’t get DDoSed; additionally, all customer servers are monitored for responsiveness and availability.

If you need more rate limiting options, we're working on it: https://github.com/FusionAuth/fusionauth-issues/issues/905

This is not currently handled by FusionAuth. You would have to use another application firewall of some sort that offers rate limiting. Here's an example for nginx: https://docs.nginx.com/nginx/admin-guide/security-controls/controlling-access-proxied-http/

We have discussed adding this feature, but due to the other options available it has not yet been prioritized. Feel free to open a feature request on GitHub.

Please check out https://fusionauth.io/docs/v1/tech/tutorials/setting-up-user-account-lockout which walks you through the steps to lock logins after a configurable number of attempts.