Oh, I thought stats were a bit random because I noticed that I started out with 16 STR or so and most opponents that I fought had higher level yet lower STR, so I thought I was simply lucky.
The vests seem to noticeably increase defense but I haven't discovered yet if the weapons actually add anything to the stats, or how they otherwise affect the combat
the weapons stats add to the strength the same way the vest adds to defense, they just haven't added in the code yet to show the weapons adding to strength as they did for the vest adding to defense.