Illarion.org

I have noticed several armors with racial tags applied. I propose that all armors should give a bonus to the race implied. Dwarven-dwarfs...Elven-elfs, other things too, be it weapons or armor, halfling axe-halflings, orc helmet-orcs.
If we want more than one "build" we should encourage it with a game engine reason. Choose your own race and you will be rewarded. No rightfull minded dwarf will choose elf armor over dwarven if the same protection is offered.

wouldn't that introduce essentially the same problem of single builds?

The approach of the devs for armors and weapons is to provide supreme balance. Once this update is applied the top level blunt weapon will be equal to the top level sword. Same goes for armor. The only difference is that armors will have their weakness against certain types of weapons (Light < Slashing, Medium < Puncture, Heavy < Blunt).

Your proposal has been brought up in the past and I think I even supported it. However, with the rebalancing update I think it will be far better than anything imagined. Perhaps you should propose a feature in Mantis so it can be held in place for further investigation after the armor/weapon's update has been applied for some time.