Again, armor tanking versus shield tanking doesnt matter, at all. You can do one or both. If you have some weird philishophical reason you NEED to armor tank and therefore it NEEDS to be the same as shield in all sense, well I'm sorry.

There is no reason the two tanking need to fulfill similar roles. Armor tanking can be worse in a lot of ways that shield tanking, it doesnt make any balance bad.

Explain to me why you need your build to revolve around armor tanking?

Shield tanking yields 0 repping when it actually counts (while being shot).

The recharge delay on assault and logi suits mean that for most engagements the amount of shield repped is almost always going to be less than armor tanks.

The fact is most suits in this game cannot tank for very long unless they are fitting tank in every slot. When you factor in an armor tank doing 19% more damage output, and repping during the fight vs a shield fit's larger buffer, no damage mods and no reps during the fight who comes out ahead?

Almost every weapon except for a few were made to decimate armor, specially with many armor killer boasting bonuses from 130%- 150%, only thing Shields have to worry about is a scrambler rifle and a laser rifle, and getting fluxed, but at least none of those weapons will OHKO them.