Gear has been descriptive unless it was part of a trope itself: I think we've had one character with a Elric-style "Soul-powered Swordmaster" or something very close to that. Many of their consequences were described as self-inflicted problems from the sword.
An additional Skill Point use is definitely not going to throw off balance, especially if every player gets access to such things from time to time.
Alternatively, you could have certain gear create new "permissions" for a character. For example, you might assume that there's no grappling a gigantic monster under normal circumstances, but if you have the Net of Entanglement, you can! Or it might be a one-use "clear a consequence" power, which could be simple (Amulet of Healing) or far more interesting (Reset Timewatch).