There are many methods to "game" the gear ranging from taping the stick to stickie soccer goalie gloves. I think it's fair to make up for the loss of grip due to the use of gloves which in turn are added to reduce hand damage from striking the abrasive screens of fencing masks. I'm not into gaming the gear to gain some sort of tech advantage, though I did add some heavier straps to my fencing masks to avoid the constant adjustment that plagues stock fencing masks. A side effect of that is that fencing mask does not wiggle as much on impact and offers less impact absorption than a stock mask.
As you hint, it's better to increase grip strength, but a lot of the grip problems are due to grip timing rather than inadequate grip strength. I've met a lot of men with impressive grip strength that lose their sticks on light impact.
I'm pretty sure you want to increase impulse grip strength, but I'm waiting to be corrected by some of the lifelong stick swingers. For my office worker hands, the best increase in *my* functional stick grip strength is an increase thumb pinch grip strength. This inadequacy in my hands may have more to do with loss of hand strength from nerve clamping due to repetitive typing motions and office posture than anything else. Weight-lifting helps develop the other four fingers unless you find the large diameter barbells that help to include include the thumb.
Impulse strength is increased by striking something hard. Hold grip strength is developed with hand grippers (Captains of Crush). A variety of grippers help, but surprisingly, I find that clicking rhythms with the lighter gauge grippers helped more for sticks than the slow crushing motions with the heavier gauge grippers. There was a time I swung pipes, but that led to inflamed wrist and tendons. So, I stick to swinging aluminum training swords and iron wood (kammagong) sticks.
