Subject: Re: Ot a new way to invest
Should we add anything in for buybacks in lieu of dividends?

Not really.
The 2.2%/year figure is from recent decades when buybacks have been high on average, so that's probably baked in, if it's needed.
The "normal" historical rate of growth of profits was usually more like inflation + 1.7%/year, prior to that.
There are several factors going into the recent upswing in profitability, potentially including buybacks.

Personally I suspect the buybacks didn't make s difference, and therefore irrelevant to profit growth rates for the broad market.
Repurchasing stock at fair value does not increase the value of remaining shares at all.
A lot of people notice the EPS rising, but forget about the cash balance going out the door. Cash has value!
A buyback increases the value of remaining shares only to the extent that it's done below fair value.
And on average stock buybacks are not done at a discount to fair value, based on their observed high pro-cyclicality.
(lots of buybacks when stocks are expensive, and few when they're cheap).
Berkshire is one of the exceptions in that regard.

Rather, I suspect the huge upswing in US corporate profitability in the last 20 years is due to other factors.
Reduced competition and thus better "rent seeking",
combined with (and slightly dependent on) weakened share of profits going to workers, who are now competing with workers around the world rather than just across town,
and changes to corporate tax rates.
The combined effect, whatever the root causes, is big.
Average net margins 1947-2004 = 6.27%.
Average net margins 2005 to date = 10.00%
That gap is a pretty large fraction of GDP now going to shareholders which would previously have been going to workers and/or taxes.

Jim