I just joined the legion, and am trying to decide between the light and medium armor choices. The only difference is that for medium, you get a heavy shield and a studded imperial piece instead of light. But as I went to fortify my armor with some leather, I noticed I didn't have an option to improve it. Curious, I reloaded my save and chose the light armor option, and noticed that both pieces have the exact same armor rating, but you can improve the normal leather one.

This is probably a pretty odd question, but is there any real advantage to the studded imperial armor whatsoever?