I do personally prefer Poe1&2 system where armor provides damage reduction and reduce attack speed.
I do find armor to simply not be a very interesting choice in D&D, but it works alright. AC is a heavily abstracted system, but it works fine.
A bigger cause for the problem is BG3 presentation giving this abstraction a specific meaning (like dodging the hit) instead of various things that AC can represent - like a character deflecting an attack with his shield or a hit bouncing from the armour without penetrating it
