I don't thin we should make plate armors even more "special" and rare, by increasing their effectivity and upkeep.
I'm not taking realism into account here, but I don't like the idea of suddenly, because you want to spend money on this round, you can have an unfair advantage over others by having a better gear once. Currently, plate offers more advantage than pre patch, but it's still manageable to kill plated people. But if we buff it, light armored rich people will complain and ask for an increase in upkeep, which is absolutlely not what players really interested in plate want.
So I would be for :
More balancing of cheap and expensive items
Less upkeep
For gameplay sake, I don't think it's good you can "choose" wether you will have a big advantage or not, simply by spending money (which is alas there for this only purpose) on a round when others did not. This is decreasing the skill factor, and make the game more like a "strategic planning" game. A change i that direction would also fix the idiotic cloth-plate-cloth-plate-cloth-plate cycle of some players, being (for some) allmost useless, then completely imba. "To have more gold, just stick with the +3 plated charger black armored guy", "ho damn, this turn he'll be an useless leech" that's not really and enjoyable, realistic or immersive game...