I put sets I like on followers so I can see them. On me I don't really care because I play in 1st person all the time. When I played my warrior I took Marcurio and eventually I had him wear the Blades Armor. I love the look of that armor. Definitely one of my favorites in the game. It is very sleek and looks light even though it is classified as heavy. I double enchanted it for Marcurio giving him great abilities. He didn't wear the helm though. I had a nice circlet for him that looked really nice with the armor.

My personal armor favorite is Steel Plate.

Forsworn armor, all day, every day.

I'm with K2 on this. Looks are very important. I play 3rd P, so I like to see my characters. People that mainly use 1st or people that just care about the action side of the game. Tend to not care about looks or character creation either. I can easily spend an hr in the creator, just to get my character the way I want them.

As far as which....It depends on the character. Some will look better in one type over the other. Just because it may be more fitting for that character. I tend to favor the heavy armors over the light. Ebony and Daedric are right up top.

Oh, and I like the look of the Heavy Imperial armor, especially with the Officer's Helmet.

If you level up either your favourite armor skill, or Smithing, you can reach the AR limit with almost any armor.

So seeing stats only is practically useless.