I wear Dwarven heavy armor. Leather = blah.
Bandits carry light armor, yes, but you can sell it. What level are you, anyway?
And you can get axes and stuff from them.
Just encountered one with mithril. Whooped it's @ss.
Also.... I might take it, but I wear heavy..... Heavy...
Entire Light Armor is babies.
Light armor is better than heavy armor bar none. My light armor has the highest armor rating possible (85) and it doesn't encumber me while I'm wearing it, it doesn't make a ton of noise when moving, and I can move fast in it.
So yeah, light armor.
At 100 heavy armor and Light armor glass and daedric armor have the same armor value or at least I read that somewhere.
You can't ignore the other perks though, like low encumbrance, etc.