"Credos should be buffs, not increase in base value" - lots of people
"Poor newbs will hit the buff cap!" - Jorb (presumably)
"Let's add a third bracket so we have base+equipment+buffs" -me
"I also want Credos to be buffs, but I will derail the discussion by bringing up stat bloat" -[REDACTED]
Basically, switching from two-bracket-system to three-bracket-system should be completely fine as long as Jorb doesn't go overboard with adding new buffs. So far, all the ones I can remember are sufficiently restricted:
-Credos are permanent but highly limited by design, unless Jorb somehow decides to implement dozen new ones which are mostly stat buffs.
-Assuming positive wound effects (+1 Survival from 'Nettle burn' and +5 Will from 'Pipe Wheeze') would be placed in the "buff" bracket, those are also limited (nettle burn can contain multiple instances, but heals quite fast - not sure about Pipe Wheeze, but I assume it stays as one big stacking wound.)
-Recreational drugs that give stat boosts are currently Alcohol (made useless because tolerance given by Contitution is too linear, people report having drunk a barrel of wine and still only being on the first steps of
The Drunkard's Progress) and Tobacco (limited by the 'Pipe Wheeze' mentioned above.) (Note that fixing the "Alcohol Tolerance curve" would limit Alcohol buffs with the intended negative downward steps instead.)
-Not sure if "steroid" is a good descriptor for "Boar Tusk Snuff" but it has built-in limitors that make it only viable for short-term non-combat use.