Maybe I'm alone on this, but I feel as if the Armor skills limit how many character build one could make. I would much rather have three types of Armor(Light, Medium, and Heavy), than having two being governed by a skill. I'd rather the armor stats determine which you want to wear, maybe some will have pros and cons. Instead, the armor rating should be dependent on the armor itself and smithing improvements.

So insted of making people depedant on armor skills to get good armor rating, you want them to have to depend on smithing skills?

problem = not solved.