Power armour is one of my favourite things in this game. Ive invested a lot into the PA stuff, got myself a fully upgraded X-01 with all sorts of energy-resist mods, and combined with a gatling laser my character is basically a walking tank shrugging off small arms fire while belting out laser shots and taking several direct hits from the most powerful of heavy explosives to even get his armour to break.

Its a pretty nice piece of kit. It's very much a late game thing. You need a good stockpile of fusion cores, be high level enough to both get high tier like X-01 or T-60 and then upgrade it to its fullest. But once you get to that point it feels just as OP as power armour should be in any setting. Its fantastic.

Very important to have that stockpile of fusion cores alongside that one fusion perk though. Puts your mind at ease when you can always take a vertibird back to wherever your stockpile is and fill up on fuel if you run out, you aren't going to be stuck in the middle of The Commonwealth with a unpowered hunk of metal crawling around the landscape taking all sorts of fire.

How useful Power Armor is varies from individual to individual, character build to character build, mission to mission and what level the character is.

Power Armor is waaaaaaaaaaay over powered at the beginning of the game. It becomes less so as your character develops. The durability of PA, when swimming in it you swim like you were wrapped in a couple hundred pounds of steel (duh), and the constant need to refuel it (the refueling part actually violates lore) balances this to a certain extent. Basically, when your character progresses to a point where Fusion Cores start raining from the sky, PA is only slightly over powered.

Power Armor is NOT needed for anything you do in the game, but there are certain events that it makes a whole lot easier. Having said that, for the Concord Deathclaw fight (this fight is actually the only excuse to give you PA at the beginning of the game), The game is designed to require it for Concord, but it really isn't required. Basically, you can win that fight without PA, but it requires knowledge about Deathclaws that you would not be privy to until later in the game, it requires you to have looted every scrap of ammunition available before the fight, It requires you to use knowledge that you should not have, and you will need a great deal of luck.

Power armor is ok but you know ..... Another settlement needs our support , here I'll mark it on your map.

Once you read the Hot Rodder, you can apply that paint scheme to any suit of armor, multiple times. Not sure if that is what you meant...

The only one i have found so far, though, is the Flames one... I think there are a couple of others...

They aren't really rare. They just seem so at first. If you are diligent and search all containers you will find plenty. I often find 4 at a time in ammo cans. My LVL 74 character has over 100 of them and and the Nuclear Physisit perked all the way up, it is not possible for me to use them all up. If anything, they are too abundant. I have so many, I even use Gatling Laser guns that use FCs as ammo. They are not expensive from vendors, although I have only ever bought 1. Was the first time I saw one in a vendor, and thought it was rare so I bought it. Turns out I find plenty.

Have you invested any perk points into Scrounger? That really helps with fusion cores along with other ammo types. Several times I found 2-4 cores in a random container out in the commonwealth. You can also sell any ammo you don't use and buy some more if you need it. Right now my character is lvl 27 with at least 60 cores, and he's been using PA since the beginning.

Stealth is very weird in this game. I can be walking tall with my spotlight on and they don't notice until i'm like 15 feet away. Even though I'm this T-60 behemoth with a gatling laser and spotlight shining at them.

So much this.

Ive managed to get to the "point of no return" missions twice using no companions,V.A.T.S or PA (On Survival), and had a crapton of Stims, Stealthboys etc.

Am i "pro" or "l33t" ?

No.

Does the game need some serious rebalancing?

Yes.

Don't think so. Why should people be forced to use power armor or deal with rare loot? If you find loot to be too abundant, use a loot overhaul mod. I do. Seven fusion cores available at lvl 50, makes you think.