Currently there are no differences to the way the game sees things from using, say Starter Shovel vs a Uber Shovel of Mountain Moving (tm)

My points are these :

Are item stats / bonuses going to be added at a future date ?

If so, could they be viewed via mouse-over when in the Inventory screen.

Eg :

Basic Shovel - 'A common shovel often used by beginner Terraformers'

Uber Shovel of Mountain Moving - 'The ultimate shovel for moving dirt around and making mountains out of molehills.' - Equip Effect '+1000000 Terraform, +1000 Epeen'

You get the idea *chuckle*