Can I vote for none of the above?

I'd dormant seed. Put the seed down after it's too cold for germination and let the snow and freeze/melt cycles get the seed into contact with the soil. And natural spring rain will germinate the seeds. You'll get a head start on the approach you list.

Thanks for your reply, Do I have to rake up the dead grass/thatch of will the seed reseed itself? When I rake the brown spots, some come up in large clumps.

If you've got dead grass and/or a fairly thick thatch layer, you should get rid of those so the seed can make contact with the soil.

I've never had a 'grub' problem that caused damage described as severe...so I cant comment on why you had so much. If the soil is in bad shape, nothing to make the grass want to grow, then you have to fix that. Putting down grass seed where there has been large brown areas and how you interpret grub damage, is just wasting effort and money.

Grubs now are deep in the ground...making little grubs and its them that comes up in the spring to munch on your grass roots. At that time a simple lifting of sections...about a foot square...will tell you whether you have a grub problem. A number of grubs less than half a dozen is nothing to worry about...its a problem if you see more than that. Then a grub bait can be thought of.
But get your lawn in good shape...its often good enough to defeat pests.
Aeration now, without seeding, I think is a waste, its too late to overseed, it wounldn't grow. Putting down seed without finding out what has caused the damage, is also a big waster.
Use a fan rake, and pull the damaged grass away---got a compost pile, put it in there. Bare the ground if necessary...use a strong rake to pull the thatch out...its another thing to bar the door of moisture and sunlght.
In the spring, if aeration is ruled out, then strong raking to make furrows in the soil can help the grass seed make contact with the soil and germinate better. It also will pull more thatch out. If it pulls more grass out, fine...it wont survive long anyway.

Put your lawn on a scheduled fertilizer program to help it defend itself against the invaders and water it when its needed.
In the spring, before seeding, (or after seeding) a general overlay of 1/2" compost (topsoil) will help the seed develop well...and with a starter fertilizer, gets the grass off to a good start.
Repeating this every year can get proven results.

If the rest of the area of lawn is growing well enough that should encourage you to fix the damage and look to what might be causing the problem as it comes along.

I plan on doing a dormant seeding in NJ; about 35k sqft out of 60k sqft of grass is quite brown and presumably quite dead.

Note sure about removing the dead grass. I'm thinking it is necessary to keep the soil in tact, sort of a natural mulch. Not sure though.

Otherwise, I was going to aerate and slit seed. From what I've read February seeding has the highest germination rates. However, I'm not sure that February will have a window to do it or the equipment will be available for rental.

About 25k sqft of the dead stuff is 6 years old; killed by grubs. Another 5k sqft died the preceding year from red thread.

Right now I'm researching seed. Another thread.

Thanks for the advice. I'm not sure what happened to my lawn, it went from the best lawn on the block to the worst in one summer. I have found some grubs not many, I'm not sure if the lawn got damaged from heat or too much fertilizer? My lawn went from thick and green to very thin with a lot of brown patches some very large? When you pull on the brown spots the lawn pulls up in your hand? I have a 100' x 200' lawn- so it's a lot of raking to pull up all the dead gress- thought maybe I could rent a machine before reseeding in the spring?