What is more appropriate: using the normal counting rules or using the
`numeral+counter` directly as the subject?

一人の人が来ました/人が一人来ました/人一人が来ました

Or

一人が来ました/7人が来ました etc?

Are they both ok? Is there a nuance? Is the first pattern redundant since
`numeral+人` already indicates a person?
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grammar word-choice counters
Is it appropriate to use 一人 as a noun in the subject position?
Short answer is, it can but idiomaticity depends.

一人の人が来ました is perhaps just as unnatural as _One person came_.

To mean 'someone came' or 'there is a person coming', it would be 人が来ました or
人が一人来ました.

* * *

  * ある人が来ました could be used. It sounds like the person is kind of important in the context.

  * 一人が来ました could be used if the context clarifies _one what_ (e.g., in answering 子供が来ませんでしたか), but even then 一人来ました would be more natural.

  * 人一人が is used to emphasize that there exists a person. So it would not fit in a sentence like 来ました. 人一人が死んでいるですよ！ is possible (to talk about how serious an incident is).
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To answer a question like 'how many people came here today?', I think the most
simple response is X人来ました.

> 今日お客さんが何人来ましたか？ - 一人来ました。

I think the second sentence inherits the first sentence's subject お客さんが. So
*一人が来ました would have a conflict here.

For the 一人が pattern, the example below is possible, at least in literature.

>
> つづいて現われたは小舟である。一種異様な軽舟で、七人の男女が乗り込んでいる。櫂の数は六挺である。七福神の乗っている宝舟、そんなような形の舟である。船首に竜の彫刻がある。その先から総が下がっている。月光に照らされて朦朧と見える。魔物のように速い速い。
> **六人が** 櫂を漕いでいる。 **一人が** 梶を握っている。

<https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000255/files/3042_31636.html>

The last part refers to people that have been introduced earlier (七人の男女).

This may be analogous to sentences like "One came." You can use 'one' to refer
to a person, but you usually need a context to establish what you are
counting, like "We had three visitors so far today. One came at 9. Two came at
11." The Japanese quote above has a similar structure.
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