i dont understand...

[Tellos Athenaios]

That said, most modern tests I’ve seen seem to have confirmed the efficiency of segmented armor. It’s plates (unlike those of later medieval plate armor) were not hardened by forging which allowed the softer metal to absorb a blow, spreading its force. Mail can be pierced by pointed weapons and projectiles and shattered by blunt ones, but segmented cuirasses are far harder to pierce and much better suited to evenly distributing the shock of blows (I use the present tense because I am referring to present-day tests, which very well might be using higher quality iron than was available in Antiquity). The lorica segmentata also appears to be the preferred choice of cuirass amongst rein actors from what I have seen. Perhaps someone who knows more about these events can clarify why.

About piercing weapons; one would always wear some additional layer of clothing/armour underneath the chain mail, or the LS if only for simple reasons of comfort. I guess it hurts: 10000+ metal rings scraping off your skin; or getting your skin stuck between the two of the segements in LS...

As for Re-enactors choosing to stick with LS instead of other forms well; that can be explained by a number of reasons:

1) LS doesn't weigh as much as chain mail;
2) LS can be recreated/faked quite easily; chain mail can't (remember: 10000+ rings...).
3) LS is cheaper (see #2); valid even way back when
4) For some strange reason (a-historical Romans) the public associates the combination "Romans + history" with LS. It's not accurate, given the Romans never took to it the way the Greeks took to the Lineothorax for instance; but yeah ... Also; not like re-enactors give an accurate representation of the armies back then if you interpret the amount of re-enactors posing as soldier type X as how many of them were actually around; I mean: ever seen as many re-enactors choosing to pose as Pantodapoi-type soldiers?