I personally regard statistics as a form of inscrutable black magic, but it occurs to me that having a check using a formula to combine multiple stats would be preferrable to an option that requires multiple separate rolls to succeed, from a Second Chance point of view, yes? I wonder if that is why it was done, and if this indicates the future direction of game design choices.
Subjectively, I know it feels disheartening to have a Second Chance get you through (for example) a Persuasive check, but still fail because of a bad Mithridacy roll.
Even the math becomes much more straightforward this way. “Would I rather have +8 Dangerous or +1 Dreaded?” becomes “Is 10 more than 8?” No need to know how those 8 points affect your chances at the Dangerous challenge or how to combine the probabilities when you reduce one to increase the other