There's a decent amount of alternate armor pieces in the game, such as all of the variations of Fur armor and Banded Iron.

But why, in the higher tier levels, are alternate armor pieces non existent?

Personally I think that there should be more, and I think that there is plenty of opportunity for it too. Think of Tinted Daedric, an armor where the plates have more of a reddish tint to them, or Gold Trimmed Ebony. Maybe even Classic Glass, one where there is more glass than metal visible. Full Dragon Plate helmets are another item that comes to mind.

I just think that there is potentially so much more that they could do with alternate armor pieces.

would anyone love something like this for Blacksmithing in a future DLC?

Gem encrusting and maybe gilding would be cool, however I'm pretty happy with the armour selections. Maybe a light armour version of Ebony and Daedric would be cool too.

more armor types coming in new dragonborn dlc

How about something like http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/2933?

I would love more in general and variations of all of them. But mostly skimpy armor lol I'm on Xbox so I'm limited.

Gem encrusting into armor and weapons would be excellent. Diamond sword anyone? I always thought this should be added in. dipping armor and weapons into gold. I think Ivory armor would be awesome as well. All those mammoth tusks just sit there. Why not Ivory weapons and armor? Or you could incase different weapons in glass, so you could have like a Daedric sword. But have it have the look of glass but the same shape as the Daedric sword.

Are there people who think there should be less armor variations?

Whats weird is the most standard armor of ancient ages like chainmail or scaled armor are non existent. o_O

I wish the speculation pre skyrim release was true, that you were able to smith individual pieces be it a paldron or bracer, or augments to the armor etc etc.

I also want something new with animal hides. We need an animal hide section in smithing. If you have an animal pelt you should be able to make armor with it! Kill a wolf get some leather and sew the pelt on it. AND LOOK AWESOME!!!!! Same with sabre cats and bears. And why can't we get Troll hide? also Vale Deer Hide would be amazing on armor.

I think he means variants within an armor type, such that not all steel armor looks like it was mass produced by "The Steel Armor Corporation" factory in Detroit. While new armor types are nice, they don't solve the problem at all.

My own solution is to download good looking armor mods that can be tweaked or retextured to act as variants. Witcher 2 armors work well for this. I do the same thing with weapons (Jaysus, 3rd Era, etc). It involves a bit of time and work on my part, but I think it's worth it.

we do have scaled armor but would love to see chainmail make a comeback