My idea is to give every 3D item a stat (either strength or defense). The strength stat increases your chance to dismember and the defense stat makes you less likely to dismember.

The maximum you can upgrade any stat is + 10% to the base value, and the maximum between the two stats is also 10%. (5% strength + 5% defense = 10% max, or 10% strength = 10% max).

There could be any combination of strength and defense that adds up to 10%.

This will make the game more interesting and keep players around longer because they will be more focused on changing their strategy and stats to beat other players rather than focusing on getting better at perfecting the tori's movement as there is a huge learning curve and it can take years to master.

Yes, I understand that this would require a great amount of reworking to the current game, BUT it would make the game a much, much greater success in my opinion by increasing player engagement and creating a strategy that is more easily adaptable without having to perfect movement understanding for 10 years.

If the dev's really care about this game and want to make it bigger and better than ever before, this is something that should definitely be added.

No.
This is not that kind of pay to win sittuation.
No.

This suggestion goes against the general principles of the game. Toribash is popular because it's focused on skill, and so items should be purely cosmetic.

I can assure you that this suggestion, and anything similar, will never be implemented.

Bad idea dude, its not mmorpg

It wouldnt be pay to win because you can only increase the stats to an extent leaving skill as the main factor.

Any advantage over your opponents removes skill as the main factor.

no it does not, every mainstream game has inbalances but the better players still win.

Toribash is too balanced and that is why it has been at a stand still

what would strength and defense change though, dismemberment doesn't play that much of a role in the competitive mods other than wrists breaking in aikido.

It has been at a standstill because simple things any modern game needs to have were ignored. With hampa not being significantly involved in community stuff, there's been no real development strategy in post-Gman period. Don't want to go in depth with that, but I hope you got the idea, it's not the balance that kills the game.

You're saying that skill would still be the main factor but it is only true if we're speaking about a beginner vs veteran player fight. When two players of same skill level fight and one of them has such items activated, it would be these items that determine the game result, - which makes Toribash a pay to win game. That is not going to happen.
I would probably agree that having custom player colliders based on equipped 3d items can be a good thing, but this is not.