Reposted here since I didn't notice this thread:

Strength directly affects carry weight, power of melee weapons (possibly also unarmed?), and affects a number of skills initially (AFAIK provides bonus/malus to melee and unarmed).

Also - and this might be important in future if this is taken into account more in accuracy calculations - most ranged weapons have a minimum strength requirement. Using the weapon under the requirement gives a slight penalty, but as of the version (at time of writing this), the penalty is so small it's easily overcome with a few more skill points invested in the relevant ranged skill.

There is also a perk that totally negates strength penalties for ranged weapons, but it's fairly deep down in the automatic weapons tree for some reason - so even if you prioritise it, it will likely be ages before you get it (and as mentioned, it's not really needed).

For reference, I believe the highest STR requirement for a ranged weapon is 7. Most high-end snipers and assault rifles are 6, pistols and SMGs around 5. This is from memory so I could be off a bit, but again it really makes little difference - especially since you'd likely want at least 5 strength since otherwise inventory management is a pain.

I think the word you're looking for here is "intimidation" or "coercion", not "subterfuge".

Yes, "intimidation" is the most appropriate for what they're going for IMO. Subterfuge is definitely not a good translation, as subterfuge specifically refers to underhanded trickery, such as "using deceit to achieve one's goal" (the latter is from the dictionary definition) - which have nothing to do with strength. Hence why this "hint" on the strength stat is so confusing.

At least now we know what the original intention of that hint is supposed to be... ;)