I wasn't talking about VATS, but now that you do mention it, I do think that VATS was overpowering at times.
But on the topic of Power Armor. If I'm fighting in just bland old Leather Armor, and am up against someone in Power Armor. My little .32 or even Chinese Assault Rifle isn't going to pierce that thick of strengthened steel. And if you've played any of the previous Fallouts (excluding FO3) you'd know that Powered Armor enemies were quite tricky to deal with when you yourself weren't wearing good enough armor. So it's simply fact, if you you're wearing Power Armor, you should be a God-like strengthened character, or else you're gonna be ending up like in FO3, where a knife can hurt you. :rolleyes:
Originals' PA is simply not a valid argument anymore. First, they were extremely rare, in comparison to the size of the rest of the game, and the point where you finally got one of them, they took a small part. Second, those were turn based RPGs. In a first person shooter experience there's a lot more value to player's skill, and character skill is a lot trickier to implement (see "bullet sponge"). You need to constantly be challenged, being a demigod is exactly what needs to be avoided.