Its a Sandbox RPG game in a pseudo historical setting which i was getting at, are you complaining about no magic and dragons as well next ?
Btw nobody stops you from wearing light armour and roleplaying a merchant. There is plenty of reasons why people are mad at the game, but i dont think its because light armour and heavy armour arent both viable and comparable in usefullness.
Well a RPG sandbox game surely gotta have more then ONE viable option no? How can you build a RPG game where you dont get pros and cons with different loadouts and you gotta use half a braincell to some decision making? I haven't played one good RPG where one stat determined if said thing was the best in the game. It's poor game design at best. It's a good decision to make heavy loadouts slower compared to light armor. Gives atleast a little bit of depth wich you want to take away from the game.