Is the availability of affixes mean there are more or fewer words in the english language?

Words of the same root with different affixes are well thought-out different words, so in that regard it would follow that there would be more words. But if you mean there might be a capability to change an existing word simply and clearly put off or negate people inventing entirely new words, root and all? In that circumstance, especially considering each modification of a root is in theory a separate word, there would be no much impact; all words have to start from somewhere.