Seriously, this has been one of the most informative body armor buying guide I've found in a while — I've been debating between AR500 steel plates and ceramic armor system guides (
https://www.games2jolly.com/profile/vonnieriley) plates for ages and this really cleared up the differences, especially regarding the spall concerns everyone warns about, which really made me hesitant about AR500 steel plates at first — understanding Level III vs Level IV plates made total sense, and the body armor weight comparison helped me decide since plate weight on long shifts is a real concern, so I ended up building out a plate carrier setup using ceramic armor plates — great post, will be sharing this with my crew!