Well those that can be upgraded to gold armor doesn't start with any armor whatsoever, so they even when fully upgraded won't have the same quality armor an unupgraded knight have, as an example Mailed Knights start with light chainmail, for a Levy Spearmen to get there he need 2 upgrades, first to padded, then light chainmail, so 2 upgrades to get to same level of armor as the Knights, and still the knights still have better armor (5 vs 2 IIRC), with an additional upgrade to heavy chainmail the knights have 6 armor and the spears 3, and they are now as upgraded as they can be, and this is compared to the most lightly armored Knight, all other knights start with even better armor, and while Armored Sergeants also start with good armor, they can't get many upgrades like the levy blokes.
I feel it is logical, but it really only gets appearent in the campaign, in custom battles it may not seem quite as logical though. Should note that in the campaigns of the Kingdoms expansion, units that start with armor start with the same value as an unarmored unit that has been upgraded all the way there unlike the standard campaign.
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