I loved that my mage through either enchanting or with casting (spellmaking) could end up with armor as strong as a warrior. He could end up with two rings giving him protection and then augment it with spells.

As it is, the best alteration magic does diddly doodly for armor after level 35+ or so.....

I just don't get what the devs were thinking?!?!?

Well I guess it is a double edge sword. With enchanting you can get heavy armor to the point where your spells cost nothing and your mana regen isn't affected.
Personally I think that mages should be squishy but that is all opinion.
Take heart though the CK will be out soon and I am sure that several someones will make mods tweaking this and that.

They wanted to use wards as a kind of magical shield in this game, but I don't see how damage resistance strictly as an enchantment would hurt.

Did you take the mage armor perk?

Yeah, Mage armor and enchanting your robes/ring/etc with Fortify Alteration and you can get fairly cheap Shielding. Just have to avoid extended melees.

there are already mods that address this. the one i just installed although i havent used it yet is called "better magic" if you pick the perks as long as you arent wearing any armor you get a passive defense of max 150 or so and the mod also doubled the duration and increased the power of the armored spell as well.

Other than Dragonskin, which I have yet to attain, I find the perks and the spells combined are rather underwhelming in terms of what they resist.... maybe 35% of what my warrior could with armor on?

In Oblivion, I could have at high levels shield spells that equalled armor protection.

Bigglesworth: thanks, I always play one game through unmodded but will then take a look at it!

Get the mage armor perks.

I do wish we had the Morrowind and Oblivion spell system back with all the old spells and spell creation, I miss my options and I know what you mean.

There are already armor and shield spells in game.

Dragon Scale Spell makes you immune to 80% of damage and lasts 30 seconds; takes 5 seconds to cast. Just cast this before a big fight. Most fights don't last but 15-20 seconds