I think you’re missing the point of MAD. The entire reason of having a nuclear arsenal is so that you can retaliate in case anyone is using nukes against you.
With a “handful” of nukes you can’t even outfit a single ICBM with warheads.
So no, having a handful of nukes is utterly pointless, because you can’t use them and you can’t deter anyone from using nukes against you. Even having 500 seems to be very much on the low side if you want to deter a country with sophisticated anti-missile system like the US.