Hmm ... odd then that all the other faction member wear the armor then isn't it. Not that I would try to make reasonable sense of half the things wrong with what NPC's do in this game. So yeah, for role-playing I wear the faction armor. Since NCP's are basically total idiots there isn't any real reason not to. Course I could pretend for role-playing reason that I shouldn't wear Thieve's Guild or Dark Brotherhood armor out in the open, but then I seldom ever join those factions anyway.

The thing is that the Thieves guild typically pays off the leaders of the towns (similar to lobbyists today) and if the guild has enough pull in a city, you can pay off the guards for less than usual.

Similar to the Assassins in the Assassin's Creed series, not enough people recognize the DB armor to understand that you wear anything other than a cloak.

-lol-

I hate mannequins.They were even creepier in Morrowind. They would turn their heads and watch you walk across the room. Or scream when you entered it.

-lol-

Kudos to you for that smile and laugh.

Come to think of it the Imperial legion does give you a choice of light, medium (a mixture) or heavy when you join.

As far as using faction armour if its a "public" faction like the Legion, Stormcloaks or Companions then I'll use their armour when I'm representing them. For "secret" factions like the DB or TG I'll use it when its helpful but I don't wander around in it.

What I do find annoying though is the rewards when there is no specific reason for them to give you a particular item but they always seem to pick one useless to your character eg those handed out by the Jarls when you become Thane.

Seems like it would be easy for the game to check which was highest out of your 1H, 2H, Archery, Destuction and Conjuration and gave you an appropriately named weapon or staff.

The mannequins in my Riften home were in the middle of the room off of their pedestals yesterday and I thought of you .. -g- I tried hitting them with my sword but could not.

depends on how you look at this and especially if you use crafting mods. Here's some stuff you could do with them:

use a crafting mod which allows you to revert the armor back into its raw materials e.g. steel armor back into steel ignots etc. Then sell the raw materials and/or make something else out of it

use an advanced crafting mod which lets you craft more complex armor based on the armor you have.

if the armor is enchanted, disenchant it to learn its spell effect. Then use the learned spell to enchant other armor/weapons you typically use

Honor the Divines and sell the armor. Give the excess septims to your kids and beggars around Skyrim on a regular basis