Factorio Forums

TL;DR

Baking power generation into the armor allows for more different armors with different bonuses.

What

There is currently very little choice when it comes to personal power generation. The solar panels are really weak and really limits what you can use while the fusion reactor is very strong but rather boring and feels thrown in given its recipe. By baking the power generation into the armor it opens up a lot of different options for new types of armors. For example you can have an armor with high power generation but low inventory bonus, an armor with a large inventory bonus but smaller armor inventory, or maybe even high resistances but penalties to movement speed. The possibilities are endless. Filling up armors with power generation items is just not very interesting and before you get the fusion reactor there's not a whole lot you can do.

The armor is called modular for a reason - the point is to be able to customize it, not to have many varieties of it. Most of what you want can already be done simply by your choice of equipment, with the only exception of inventory size.

I admit that it would be useful if you could give an "equipment grid" power generation without having to add extra modules for it.
And the reason why I say the grid rather than the armor, is because you can use grids on vehicles too.

This is pretty much what all the "lock equipment in place" requests are about. To be able to make a grid that has certain fixed properties, i.e. a very powerful but not expandable car generator. I still very much like that idea...