The stock clutch can survive, for a while, if you don't do hard starts or rev from low rpm in high gears. I'm still waiting for Cobb to get the AP Tuner working on the Mk8 so I can use EQT, or for APR to get their at home option working. But plenty of folks have had good results with APR and Unitronic already. I'd strongly recommend doing an intercooler either at the same time as tuning or first, the stock one is really deficient and will already be cutting power on a stock car in hot weather or hard driving.
I ran a stage one tune on my Mk7.5 GTI for 20k miles on the stock clutch with no issues, but didn't track it. I have a friend who's run the Neuspeed module on two GTIs with no issues, it's not nearly as much power as a good stage one tune, but it's still a decent improvement from stock.