[Boron]

Imho high protection is better than good def.

If you have high protection and the other goodies like body etheral, luck etc. most weapons get negated by your buffs and the few that come through are usually countered by protection.

If you have instead only mediocre or little protection but high def and be and luck etc. even less hits hit you but the few that hit you are much more dangerous and usually lead to afflictions also which cripple your SC. And if you encounter good enemy units, usually blessed units then usually the SC who focuses on defensive is easily killed whereas the protection SC has still chances to survive.

Some troops even have magical weapons, e.g. shadow vestals. They should easily kill your defense SC whereas the protection SC should have a fair chance.

The only condition in which in theory the Armor SC has a disadvantage is vs. Anti-SC-Thugs and such with AN weapons.
But imho usually Anti-SC-Thugs/SCs have a better performance if they are equipped with specific SC counter items which are usually not AN but do double/triple damage vs. the specific SC type like herald lances vs. demon/undead or moon blades vs. magic beeings.

So imho the protection SC is almost always superior to the defense SC.