Wiki Q&A

The supplied context does not contain a comparison between crafted armor and found magic armor, so I cannot answer whether crafted armor is better. The chunks only cover general armor and weapon mechanics, such as cumulative armor values [1], cumulative meditation penalties [1], stamina fatigue penalties [2], durability and "Broken" status at 0 Hit Points [3], armor/magic resist ignoring effects [4], and creature armor minimums [5]. None of these chunks state whether crafted armor outperforms found magic armor, nor do they provide a direct comparison of the two.