I totally get that point. Not saying it is wrong.
I have always felt heavy armor protects too well.
My perfect world would be clothes and armor sort of like Rust. Wear pants or kilt or skirt or shorts or whatever, Add a top piece, gloves, hat, footwear and so on. Have tons of different choices/colors/styles, hell even do it like rust where you get steam card drops that translate to clothing or skins for stuff. Make armor so none fully encloses the wearer as in there is a chest plate but that plate doesn’t cover everything, same with the hats/helmets...well mostly some full helmets would be fun. All armor is generally pretty junky looking like recycled stop signs.
All armors should protect less. Maybe light armors offer no protection but small running buffs or whatever.