I tried tooth picks.
Don't do it.
You have to cut them off both inside and outside, then you need to putty the inside cause the toothpicks are tapered and the hole keeps bubbling with just epoxy.

It took 2 boxes - 1000.

I'll try putty next time.

When I was making clear finished canoes/kayaks, I found that the wet sponge treatment (to raise the grain before finish sanding) tended to swell the staple holes mostly closed. If there were bad tears/bruises, I recall hitting them with a wet cloth and hot iron to give them a shot of steam. I just went from finish sanding to glass and epoxy and never had any problems IIRC. The bubbling problem can be minimized by dropping the shop temperature after the epoxy goes on.
But I didn't mind having the staple holes 'showing' - they did absorb more epoxy into the torn wood fibers and looked darker than the surrounding wood.