Thanks but I do not want to do it that way. That is just too messy and complicated, plus smithing bonuses cannot be detected by SKSE so that would put a hole in the attempt anyway. All I want to do is just set the armor "wearing" skill modifier to zero. All the other skills (damage for weapons, power of spells, cost of spells etcetera) have game settings to increase or decrease the effects of skill... it is hard to believe armor would not have one.
Did Fall Out not have this?
Oblivion had that setting, why not skyrim?
No, I don't know of any game-settings that will effect it.
SKSE has lots of functions applicable to Armor (and Armor Rating): http://www.creationkit.com/Armor_Script
So you could - I guess - add a quest and script to nerf the rating back down if it is effected by skill/level increase, using either http://www.creationkit.com/Increase_Level or http://www.creationkit.com/Skill_Increase to trap the event