While I, myself, fell in love with Coat of Plates from the second I found out it could protect from a couched lance (at least from being pierced by that lance), I was dissapointed with the fact, that CoP in M&B:W lacked any shoulder protection. However, I would like to compare it to other two armours, namely - Cuir Bouilli over mail and "Banded" armour, in terms of shoulder protection. While Cuir Bouilli, as well as a new version CoP, offer a somewhat separate pauldrons of same matherial, I belive, that merely extending basic armour's shoulders, like in "Banded armour" would be more fitting.
That being said, more variety - the better. In the future, I'd be happy to see a separate heraldic version of CoP.