Yeah. I wasn't a big fan of the armor in 3e. It was the other extreme - too complicated. You had to always remember all the nuances of everyone's armor. Especially as a DM, it was a pain in the rump.
Was it? I recall having notes as part of a DM Screen (which may or may not have existed as an actual physical screen during any given session) that made factoring in penalties a breeze; all of the commonly used/relevant factors were taken into account ahead of time and any extemporaneous adjustments were infrequent.
