I remember when cake mixes included the number of strokes needed to mix the batter by hand. The Betty Crocker FAQ website (a U.S. baking mix company) suggests 150 strokes per each minute of electric mixer time recommended. Note: that is not 150 strokes per minute! So if the directions call for 2 minutes of mixing, that translates to 300 strokes.
Betty Crocker FAQ Site
EDIT
The stroke count in this answer is specifically for use with a cake mix. As KatieK pointed out, mixing time and strokes are really dependent on the ingredients and desired consistency for that particular recipe and step in the recipe.
Flour labeled as Cake flour usually is weak flour: low W value, or less formally "low protein" or "fewer gluten". This is somehow weird, as some cakes will require weak flour, whether others nedd strong flour (for yeasted dough cakes, if they add lots of fat/oil to the dough, if they add lots of sugar, pieces of fruits/nuts, etc).
I specifically don't know whether Maida is strong or weak flour, despite this answer and it's comments.
Wheat plants has been selected for several milleniums to get more productive varieties, and, yes, grains that give stronger flour.
Substitutes as weak flour
Trying to get flour from a more "primitive" variety of wheat, such as spelt, emmer or einkorn. These are expensive where I live, and usually sold as bio, but maybe spelt is easily found in India. As they have not been so "genetically selected", they still have less gluten than today's "normal" flour. They also tend to have more and better taste than "normal" flour.
Another flour with low gluten content is rye. It has a different taste than wheat, but I thing it fits really well with cakes. This grain grows better in colder climates, so I'm not very sure how hard will it be to get it where you live.
Other flours, as rice or corn / maize have no gluten. It means gas bubbles won't be trapped in, and will result in a much too dense crumb. You might search some gluten-free bread tricks to solve this.
Substitutes as strong flour
Any bread flour will probably work. Maybe it won't rise as much and you'll get a crumb with a denser consistency, more similar to a "chewing gum" than a "soft cake". But if you are ok with this, you can go on.
Note(Thank to @Anisha for the suggestion):
Notice that different flours have different absorption, so some readjustment on hydration should probably be made to the original recipe.
Best Answer
Your premise for Type 1 is correct, however you seem to have misunderstood Type 2: It is no problem to continue mixing the butter-sugar-egg mixture, but as soon as the flour is added, the gluten starts to develop and you should just mix until combined.
For Type 2, creaming the butter and sugar helps to incorporate a lot of air into the mixture, resulting in a light and fluffy texture. This continues when the eggs are added. Proper creaming takes some time, but at some point further mixing does not improve the result any more.