U-bolts vs pad-eyes for cockpit tether points?

[JohnV]

I need some tether clip-on points in my cockpit. But Wichard forged padeyes cost a lot, and cheap Chinese copies aren't reliable. So, I wonder about using u-bolts that have the same or higher load rating as conventional pad-eyes.
The u-bolts come with 4 nuts and 2 oblong trim plates. This means you sandwich the deck, plus an additional, larger backing plate, between the 2 trim plates and tighten each pair of nuts against each other. It seems to me that such a union has to be comparable in strength to a one-piece pad eye.
To limit risk of accidentlly opening an older tether carabiner, you could use a welded ring inside the u-bolt.
I'm interested in your collective wisdom on this, as it seems to offer a much less expensive solution than forged pad-eyes.
John V.