I hold the same view as her. I have a few rifles that people get flat out flustered when they see me pull them out of the case for a hunt. I usually get a "you taking THAT thing out to hunt?" Of course I do tend to "baby" the purdy ones a little more.

So, your going with matched grain walnut blanks (and it is hard to beat that Turkish for some pretty wood) then I would definitely go with adding a lug. It's good hard wood yet still has some flex to absorb punishing recoil (many of your finer express doubles have it) but with the serious expense of that particular blank and having it worked I personally would do everything I could think of to make sure it lasts a LONG LONG time. And it's not like it's a hard thing to do nor very expensive as you have the abilities to do it yourself so why not just take that extra precaution and worry yourself less?