Would imply that you could triple, rather tan double, characters base stat. However A) Buffs would presumably be harder to acquire than Equipment bonuses B) one of the primary aims of this changes was originally to curb stuff like being able to make a miner out of a fresh character by equipping it with Strength gear (you would now be, at least theoretically, able to reach 30 instead of 20 STR.)
"Buffs" would include primarily Credos, which interfere with normal character progression when they give flat stat bonus and confuse newbies. Other stuff would mainly include Wounds and Alcohol/Narcotic effects.
Least invasive way to implement this would actually be during a reset, since lot of people have had to raise, for example. their Masonry while bearing the burden of the bonus amount gained from Quarryman and Miner.
Going "no refunds" would still produce beneficial effects to these people: they still have same amount of Masonry as before the hypothetical patch, but now the cost of raising masonry is also lower.