$850 mesquite thorn

I can see that happening and that's kool, but I hit the hi mountain trails a lot this time of year and I simply wouldn't take a chance on a potential iffy tire failing. It's all about the conditions of where you drive. I get your point

 

The only two things that will teach it a lesson is a bulldozer and high doses of ground sterilants. Eventually mesquite learns from those lessons.

 

Plugs grip into the area with the radial belt much better that the areas without, ala sidewall.

The sidewall of a tire is under different types of stress and with the wide variety tires and their designs, its just to high a risk for a company to take. There may even be laws against it.

That said, you can still repair them and should be fine. Theres a significantly higher chance of it failing though. I use "significantly" loosely.