The armors have small bonuses, and in my opinion, are far better looking than any combos you can make out of the pathetic armor piece collection. Plus, I like full-face helmets alot, so I have no problem not being able to see my Shepard's face. He's not wearing any armor for the more important (In my opinion.) scenes anyways. My favorite extra armor is the Blood Dragon suit. Pretty badass in my opinion.
As for the weapons, I used the Collector's AR and the Blackstorm HW once in a while. They're not really better, per say, but they're unique. The Blackstorm does handle craptons of Husks well though.