Fusion cores are weightless. Beyond that, there are an infinite supply of fusion cores. I've started wearing my power armor 24/7. After building up my settlement, getting caps became trivial. Like 1500 caps every 10 minutes trivial. It allows me to buy plenty of fusion cores and ammo in bulk. Once I get a jetpack on this baby, nobody's gonna stop me.

I also like leg mods that allow me to carry more.

That + alcohol (still need x2 effect perk) and other stuff allows me to carry 400 worth of gear and my base STR is... 3

Drinking and Driving Power Armor...sounds amusing.

Power armour is what allows non-combat characters to complete the Heavy combat portions of the game. A Cha+Int+Lck character can get a hell of a lot of use out of PA, but even without that you can make it last a long time if you don't sprint around.

I did both Corvega and Concord on the 50% initial core + one full core, with a fair bit of walking around in between.

You just don't (unless your CIL build) wear it all the time for random exploration and instead put it on for specific missions. Fast travel doesn't deplete cores, so you can FT to base, put it on, FT to mission site and kick ass.

I think this design is way, way better than the FO3 "Its just heavy armour" design. It feels special now, and is brutally powerful. Something you - at least at lower levels - think hard about using, rather than just strapping it on permanently.

Much more flavourful.

Fusion Cores don't have any weight, so carrying as many as possible wouldn't hinder your encumbrance.

Personally I like Power Armour. It feels like "power" armour now

It is far from useless. It is just that you need to be more selective on when to use it when you lack Fusion Cores. That is, if you are not expecting to go into a difficult area, then there is no point in taking your tank with you.