Have you been able to address sticky lifter without surgery?

[Perfectlap]

I have a sticky lifter(s). It surfaced in a noticeable way rather abruptly at the end of summer. During a $2,000 AC repair no less... The AC I never ever use. The engine sounded like an Italian tractor. We did the flush, run cleaning additive, put in fresh oil thing. Fairly quiet with a steady idle once again! After a long drive I couldn't hear the ticking at all. The plan was to dump this oil at about 3K miles. It's currently at 1,500 (I think 102K total). But since then the ambient temps have obviously dropped. I was considered it would sound and run terribly once it started getting really cold. I'ts not that yet, but I am getting that feint ticking again with a slightly uneven idle (well within one hash mark). On more moderate days of warmer temps, which we had a lot of before January rolled around, the ticking doesn't seem to be very noticeable at all especially after the oil is up to temp. Most passengers look at me like what the heck I'm obsessing over. I'm trying not to run the car so much which is easy since it's only a weekend car.

Have any of you been able to eliminate this issue altogether without having to remove the lifters? Would it hurt to run the cleaning agents after each (now shorter) oil change as part of a gradual process? I was amazed at how dramatic the change was after the initial cleaning.