It can be a good stepping stone if their undergrad degree is weak.
Also, DTCs appear designed to ensure the gap between undergrad and PhD is a bit smaller.
If I were to redo my PhD I would look for a DTC route now even with a 1st class.

I'm not sure I understand. Is there a reason why you are emailing your supervisors about a strategy for success?
Are you giving them your corrections in a piecemeal fashion?
You were given a list of needed corrections so is there a reason why you didn't complete them all before handing it back to your supervisors?
This is your PhD not theirs and it sounds to me that you might be struggling to accept total ownership of the process. I am guessing that is because you are absolutely desperate to get this all finished. Unfortunately it doesn't work like that and you need to be careful that you are not pissing your supervisor off by trying to force the issue.

You have misunderstood my point and I detect a hint of frost in your answer above so I will wish you well and bail from the discussion :-D
I would however respectfully suggest that you don't bite the ankles of people who are trying to help you if you want further responses.

I have re-read my response to you several times and I honestly can't see what I have said to make you come to that conclusion.

Another option could be to go for PhD award by paper publications but to be honest if your friend has only completed 20% of the research work in 3.2 years then it sounds like they will be leaving with nothing. I cant see how enoug work has been done to even justify a Masters degree here because 20% is less than 8 months and I assume that this will be both a highly fragmented and innefficient 8 months,

There is absolutely no logical reason whatsoever for your age being an issue but that will depend on the country you want to work in. The USA seems to be pretty backwards and obsessed with youth over experience but in the UK for example, things are much more enlightened in that regard. Either way, there is nothing you can do about it now. You have already spent enough years doing what others expect of you. It's time to get on with what you want.
When you get your PhD you will be perfectly placed to enter academia, secondary or primary education or even home tutoring via your own company. I did my PhD in my forties and now run my own company. Lots of people do this. Doing a PhD with the sole aim of getting an academic job is a very poor reason in my opinion. The chances of securing a permanent job are so small that you really need a good solid backup plan. In my opinion you should do a PhD only because you enjoy something so much that you want to spend a few years dedicating yourself to it.
Dont put all your eggs in one basket. Every academic job attracts hundreds of applicants and academia is full of postdocs in their mid-thirties and in several cases early 40s still trying to secure their first permanent post when most of us are on our second or third careers. It really is a horror show. I personally know three people who were around 40 before they got their first permanent post. One guy had spent 17 years on temporary academic contracts!!!!