Still, I feel there should be some kind of gating factor (limited uses, potential risk, etc.) to using useful items to gain the 1d. I foresee players invoking their item EVERY time they use the related skill.
I personaly have no problem with this. I think it's part of the mechanical balancing act: TNs for starting Player-Heroes will be higher than in 1st ed., Hope has to be spent before the roll, etc.
I doubt the intent was intentional, mathematically analyzed balance. If so, it seems odd that the differential is so great based on Standard of Living. If it's gamed to be usable on every roll of a skill, then Rich cultures effectively get a bonus skill point on four skills, even if those skills already have multiple ranks. Applied to four skills of rank 2, that's kind of like 48 free skill points....48 bonus hours of gameplay...for a starting character. What does a Poor culture get to balance this?
In any event, I was coming back to the thread to post this thought: I was imagining a blacksmithing hammer as a Useful Item to gain +1d6 to Craft attempts, at least when smithing is involved. For a character concept involving smithing, it seems perfect. Except....that makes no sense to me. Without a hammer you can't really blacksmith at all, so to give a free skill point because you have a hammer feels wrong. The LM might rule that you roll as if Weary (and/or Ill-favoured) if you don't have the proper equipment. But, even so, this doesn't add up: if you walk into a fully equipped smithy, why does the fact that you brought your own hammer give you +1d6? That makes it not just a "useful" item, but a "special" (even magical) item.
I do like the flavor of Useful Items. I like that my blacksmith character carries around his own, special hammer. ("There are many cross-peen hammers, but this one is mine.") It's just that the mechanical impact seems too powerful.