1. Armour is not any tougher than it was before, Vondy has stated this already. It only feels like it is tougher because you're used to less people using it because they break it in gunfights, so they rather don't have it anymore or they have it but only half durability or less. Now everybody is getting into gunfights and then repairing their armour, so it feels like they have more when you combat them.
2. Pretty much the exact same thing as I said in number 1, just that it's more noticeable because you're in mid-late game.

Vondy has said that he will be monitoring how it plays out, he has heard our cries that the shards are too common. But I think it might be more than that, because if they tie shards to ONLY being found in death stashes; that means that you'll get into a gunfight, and lose what about two thirds maybe more of your armour, only to receive a single tiny shard to repair a single tiny pip of durability. Once again it would be more beneficial to just avoid gunfights and camp instead.

Personally, I had an idea that they tie the shards to only drop in death stashes still; but instead of them repairing one pip of durability over 2 seconds, make them restore a third of the armour's durability over like 8 or 10 seconds. That way it is encouraging people to NOT just repair a bit of their armour mid fight with the current 2 seconds a pip. It would make gunfights rewarding and not too costly to our armour.