For the vast majority of winter I get by perfectly fine without studs simply by having wide tires and running so low pressures that the gauge doesn't even register. However, there's that handful of trips, especially towards the end of the winter, that I could really use the extra grip you get with studded tires. I decided to continue on the custom / diy theme with my bike mods and used 13mm self-tapping screws instead of dedicated tire studs. It's ones with a wide, flat base but I'm still considering taping over them to protect the tubes.
This is the rear wheel, I think I'm only doing the outside row on the front. I only have about 25% of the knobs studded and the increase in grip is already immense.
I'm not the slightest worried about the tire itself. I can just take out the screws when summer comes and it's like they never were there. It's the sidewalls that give out on my tires, not the tread. I've got like 0.15 bars (2psi) pressure in them during the winter time which absolutely annihilates the sidewalls so I get about one year of use from the rear tire.