I suppose the question comes down to: which is the greater risk. Lugging all that stuff into combat and slowing yourself down, or going in lighter but more vulnerable.
I don’t know the answer. Might not hurt to get some sergeants together and see what they think.
A large portion of injuries to our troops are injured in IED explosions where armor does them little good. However, in battle, I would bet that the armor has saved more soldiers than it has hurt.