Re-lacing a front wheel

My front rim has so many smily's in it that it is time to replace it (I have the same old lament around the crappy OEM rim ). Anyway...I sourced a rather smashing looking SM Pro Platinum and on its arrival my boet (who has rebuilt his fair share of mountain bike wheels) started the tear down. Except the nipples had galvanised themselves onto the spokes and it required careful heating with an oxy-acetylene torch to work them loose, in the process rendering the nipples non re-usable. I now have a set of BMW spokes with no nipples and have been reliably told that BM spokes need BM nipples. At around R30 a pop (X36). Is this true? Has anyone attempted the same rebuild? I can source a new spoke set (with nickel plated copper nipples) for around R1700. Is this the better way to go given the corrosion problem that will likely repeat itself with BM nipples?