They've changed the drill several times, presumably to make it less inconvenient. I don't know the current pickup location(s) because I stopped caring about it after two or three experiences.

Your subway hybrid plan could be viable because getting in motion on line 2 is arguably even faster/easier than the taxi queues (I haven't tried the new train yet), but you need to be really strategic about where to disembark.

I will point out something that we've talked about in the other thread; some transfers entail long walks. Off the top of my head, Lujiazui, Nanjing East, People's Square, Nanjing West, JA Temple, and Zhongshan Park are varying degrees of bad, and Century Ave is the only line 2 transfer station I would rate as "good".

If you just want to get off of Line 2 and grab a taxi or car via an app, I'd forget about the stations in the boondocks, and would at least try to get across the river (unless my destination was in Pudong).

You might want to look at the airport train thread to see if any of those stations are viable for you. It's a lot faster than line 2, but the route runs far to the south between PVG and the river before cutting north towards SHA.

None of these approaches are really better than taxi all the way, but you will save money, and if your destination happens to be really close to a subway station, you're in good shape.

After you figure out where you want to stay, you can post again in one of these threads, and we can evaluate specific options for you.