The core issue is, not everyone wants a 'chessboard'. Some people prefer the risk, to have uncertainties. Without those combat is just to predictable. Hardly any situation where you have to adapt. But this will always be a matter of opinion.
The current armor system counterdicts the core feature of the game: cross classing. Therefore would be my solution, fuse armor to one layer of armor. If the body armor is heavy, you are vulnerable to magic, if it is light you are more vulnerable to physical, if it is leather, armor will be slightly lower but you will have no vulnerabilities. Because with current system you can't focus a target with everyone without having to grind through two different layers of armor and without having elemental effects as pretty wasted of physical damage sources. Though there are many other suggestions to fix this issue, so my suggestion is only one of many.
Regarding intiative: Just scrap it completely, it is already screwed by the round-robin system anyway. Just keep the round-robin system and let the players decide in which order they want their characters to act. Pretty common in turnbased games any and you don't need this joke of initiative system.
