> Instead, where real armors evolve against threats, fictional armors evolve as a visual language [...]
I wonder if that hints at a "root cause" of the problem, or rather an additional constraint that movie armor is subject to and real armor is not: Prop design is all about which associations to evoke in the audience and which to avoid.
If you want to show some futuristic soldiers in hi-tech armor, you probably want to deliberately avoid any association with medieval armor - even if from a purely technical standpoint, taking those designs and upgrading them with modern/future tech would be the best fit for your soldiers.
I wonder if that hints at a "root cause" of the problem, or rather an additional constraint that movie armor is subject to and real armor is not: Prop design is all about which associations to evoke in the audience and which to avoid.
If you want to show some futuristic soldiers in hi-tech armor, you probably want to deliberately avoid any association with medieval armor - even if from a purely technical standpoint, taking those designs and upgrading them with modern/future tech would be the best fit for your soldiers.