The way I interpret it, the stats already take the modifiers into account, which makes them kind of pointless. To the player, it really doesn't matter if RNG rolled an 8 directly or rolled a +5 modifier and a 3 directly.
IDEA instead of these modifiers adding a direct modifier, make it multiplicative (50% or even 100%). That way, they would become increasingly more beneficial after buffs that make the entire empire smarter.
