Auto-load new items in feed with "Load more"-button

mockup

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So we have a feed with tiles (item requests) that can be interacted with by users, thereby removing them from the feed. Below this feed there is a block with newly added items / products, so the feed has a "load more"-button instead of infinite scroll to make the other content block & the footer accessible.

What makes the most sense regarding adding new item requests in the feed when one / multiple item request(s) is removed?

  1. Automatically load a new tile (item request) at the bottom of the feed (below block of newly added items), so there is a constant number of tiles in the feed at all time
  2. Only let users load new items in the feed through the "load more button", with the option that the feed is empty if a user has interacted with all the items, unless he clicks "load more"
  3. Other solutions?