Does borax do anything more for "boosting" detergent than adding active oxygen would?
Borax was used as a "builder" in washing formulations long before perborate was used as a bleach. "Builder" is the terminology for additives which reduce the influence of water hardness. Other examples of builders include trisodium phosphate, soda, polyphosphates (like Graham's salt) or today most often aluminosilicate ion exchangers (Phosphates are more or less forbidden nowadays because of eutrophication of rivers and seas).