>>23388808
I actually like that it has no skirt armor. They were always badly designed in that they're one big plate purely on a hinge joint and if you've tried to move the legs of a gunpla too far you know it just pops right off. In universe, you'd have a massive metal plate being moved just by friction and gravity and it would be clanking against the leg every time it moves. If they put a motor just to move the skirt plates that'd be a ton of extra weight . The gundam would damage itself just by walking.
The small yellow plates just covering the joints being connected to the upper thigh itself seems much less restrictive and you'd have to shoot around a corner to hit the joint itself anyway.
Plus I think the idea of not having many weak points is kinda antithetical to concept of a giant humanoid mecha in the first place so just explain it away with saving weight to have a more nimble mobile suit that cant be hit easily. It just needs to be sturdy enough to not be damaged by infantry and smaller caliber arms. No matter how much your armor it, being hit by a beam weapon is an instant kill.

>>23319613
compared to this.