Abilities definitely do something, but I also feel they are not doing enough when it comes to skills (only determining the cost of the skills to some degree).
We use a house rule, that you do not get a d6, but your corresponding ability die as a wild die when making any skill roll. Despite initial worries, that it might be a bit much, it works very well and definitely underlines the value of all the abilities.
We also use a house rule for initiative, that you make an agility or smarts roll (your choice) at the start of a round to determine how many cards you can draw (one plus one extra for a success and every raise on that roll); you can keep one and give back the others.
I like both, since they make ability scores more "present", and also initiative is a little less
completely random.
Of course, YMMV, as usual.
Bye
Thanee
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