The stud and lug nuts job is to clamp the wheel to the hub.
Back before OSHA in the early seventies we used Hunter on the car balancers before the computers came along. Very dangerous on used tires. You could have rocks, etc. come off at high speeds and shoot across the shop and unless you were working on a straight axle truck the entire front end would transmit any vibrations caused by loose suspension arts as the suspension was hanging free, unloaded. If you rotated the tires the entire procedure had to be done again.
The center register is critical on commercial vehicles like trucks because it also carries the weight of the vehicle, just like floating axles carry no load just in case an axle breaks. Most racing types use hub centered wheels. Instantly centered, no run out at extreme speeds on a paved track. Dirt is seldom smooth.
Lug centered wheels need to be balanced on special adapters that used the lug holes to center the wheels. We used those in the early seventies when computer balancers first came out and Earlier Porsches and VW's had large 5 lug centers ( Also used that lug pattern size on off road vehicles as it loaded the outside edges of the wheel center where it was stiffer/stronger.) Small bolt patterns like 4 on 4" or 5 on 4" used on light vehicles.
Large cars, Cads, 5 on 5", Larger Chrysler vehicles and Ford pick ups, Jeeps 5 on 5 1/2". Larger trucks 6 and 8 lug.
NASCAR recently returned to one center fastener similar to the Knock off wheels of the past. No lug nuts.
