One aspect that variable armor "simulates" is that even if it is homogeneous across all locations, the material doesn't always protect the same against different types of weapons, or against blows delivered from different angles.
If you're head to toe in mail, even wearing a full-face mesh coif... would you rather be hit in the stomach or the head with a mace?
Plate armor is best when it's deflecting points, blades, and crushing blows, not handling them head-on.
Mail, also, is great against blades, somewhat good against points, but not terribly effective against blunt weapons. Anywhere where bone is close to flesh is more vulnerable. Against blunt weapons, the padding under the mail is more effective than the links themselves.
However, from a preferred gameplay perspective (and I think "degree of realism desired" falls under that category), I prefer variable damage rolls.
The mechanic was first introduced in Stormbringer, a game where a character can start as a blind, limbless, leprous beggar from Nadsokor, or as an assassin-noble-sorcerer from Melnibone... variable armor is a perfect extension of that.
I like the variability of the random armor protection precisely because it abstracts armor and the interaction of damage. I find that if I begin thinking that fixed-point is more "realistic", then I begin down a slippery slope into fixed armor protecting differently against different weapon types, and then it becomes more complex than I prefer.
However, I'd argue that the sheer genius of the BRP system is that one can have random armor values, or one can then use fixed point armor value with variable protection against different attack types (slashing, impaling, blunt, etc.), and the game still works.
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