LAKE MX 241 (Cleats into Carbon) Part 1 

Agree 100% on this. For the price of these shoes, there should be a metal plate for the cleat to interface. Clearly a road cyclist engineer signed off on the MTB shoe.....

I don't know if you reached out to Lake or Shimano, but I suspect they would tell you it is okay to install the cleats directly onto the carbon outsole. I suspect the serrations on the cleat are there to dig into the outsole so it won't move while you are pedaling, and that won't work if you use a spacer. The outsole should (hopefully) be designed with that function in mind. You should see the bottom of my Giro Empire shoes. The carbon outsole is all gouged up to hell from stepping on rocks and stuff. My philosophy is, if this stuff can't take some abuse, I'm not interested, and a lot of the carbon fiber composites used for mountain bike applications are overbuilt so they are durable enough for the task.

I hear you, brother. Similar thing happened on my Specialized Expert XC MTB carbon soles with my Shimano SPD cleats. For me. I'm less worried about affecting the structure of the shoe although I don't see the delamination that you have. I am more concerned that since these cleats nubs do no "sink" into carbon soles like they do with nylon, so they stand too proud of the rubber sole and then none of the sole's rubber tread material makes contact with the pedal body. Thus making them feel loose and unstable on top of the pedal. I come unclipped in rough sections regardless of pedal tension (XT clipless). My older Specialized shoes with nylon soles that these nubs can bury into feel much more solid on the pedals since the sole then makes contact with the pedal body. These nubs work (arguably) great for nylon except micro-adjustment is not possible. I think we need cleats for carbon soled shoes that just have a heavily textured bottom and not these nubs. Not sure why product managers haven't figured this out yet. Makes me wonder if these companies actually use the products they design/sell. Seems like quite an oversight. I'm considering grinding down the nubs on my bench grinder and seeing if the cleat will recess properly and stay in place without sliding around once torqued down.