>mini mechs
Too big to enter buildings. Too small to beat a tank. What's it good for?
>similar to a human it would need to be capable of abstract concepts and reasoning
Have you looked at your fellow humans lately? SJWs have zero reasoning, yet they are still considered "human".
Power armor is so awesome that it may change the balance of power between people and governments. Plate armor was powerful and expensive in medieval times. Only the ruling class could afford knights and that lead to the rise of feudalism. The invention of relatively cheap guns made the knight obsolete. It shifted power to the people and lead to democracy.
Power armor will make all of our AR15s obsolete. We would need RPGs to even damage power armor. The government will win the arms race against the people again. What will happen to democracy?
>all you'd really need is the mechanical knowledge
All you need is the brains of Tony Stark and a box of scraps to build your own power armor. Is that all?
But seriously. Most Americans don't even own an AR15. Power armor? Forget about it. Only the government and bodyguards of the super rich will have them. The people will go back to being serfs. Now that I think about it, the feudalism in Warhammer 40k makes more sense.
>Why though?
Bulletproof soldiers.
>Heavy armor and ballistic shields see limited use
Because they are heavy. That's why there is power in power armor.
>Bipedal design will severely hamper operational range because it's inefficient
Every building and city in the world was built for humans with two legs.
>now.
Nobody is talking about 2019. We are talking about 2050 and beyond. Bulletproof power armor should be the standard in science fiction. Today’s guns should be obsolete in the far future. But we keep seeing future soldiers that are weaker than today's soldiers. That's just unbelievable. In Star Wars, the emperor's “elite” stormtroopers were beaten by Stone Age teddy bears armed with sticks and stones. Starfleet redshirts don't even wear any armor and get killed by flowers. That’s pathetic.