I get that, if I had access to another vehicle and not risk being stranded somewhere across the country then I would wonder if it's worth the effort.
As for the price, I think that's not necessarily true. Whilst I'm an absolute tyre snob and will only look at UHP tyres (despite me considering Michelin Cross Climates for a few hours, they're not exactly ditchfinders) I am a bit more flexible about wheels.
I've done this about 4 times already twice for an e92 with 17" wheels once for an A4 B8 with 18" and once for the F30 with 18" wheels) you can easily get a set of genuine OEM wheels off ebay for about 200-£300 net total cost at most. They might cost a bit more initially, but you can recoup another £100-£150 by sticking the part worn UHP tyres on ebay afterwards. I even managed to get the set of Audi wheels for a net outlay of about £50 that way.
And you can get reasonably good looking ones, they won't be the uber popular syle 313 for example, but style 189 on eBay or 400M can certainly be sourced.
4x winter tyres in 17" or 18" non-staggered size are around £450-£600 fitted (and I'm thinking nice UHP tyres) so the total outlay is well under £1000. Last but no means least, I managed to sell the set of complete winter tyres+wheels for pretty much the price of the tyres (giving the alloys for free though) after one year/10k miles of usage. Repeated this 3 times as I kept changing cars.
It does involve a bit of a faff, but hardly more than half day of total effort - well worth it for the peace of mind it gives me.