Leather Armor Needs Work, Rotten Flesh Is the Key

In the current progression of the game, almost no one makes leather armor. This is because getting enough leather is a significant time and effort investment, and it is easier to simply get the iron for iron armor. Players will already be looking to do that anyway because it's the next tool upgrade. This has made leather armor pointless, as it is one of the worst armors and is only situationally useful.

Ideally, players would be making leather armor around the same time as stone tools, keeping the progression of armor in line with the progression of tools. The problem is, again, that getting enough leather takes a lot, and most players would rather spend that time progressing to the next set of tools and armor. So, getting leather needs to be made easier. However, I don't see making cows drop more leather as the right solution, nor do I see changing the armor recipe to be a good answer.

Think for a moment, what are players already doing at this point? Likely fighting monsters to defend themselves. Getting leather armor would surely help with that. Say, they're getting a lot of rotten flesh right? Doesn't have much of a use either, it's not like it's worth eating. Currently it's just filling inventory space. Modded Minecraft, of course, has already solved this problem by letting you smelt it into leather. Which, funnily enough, gives players an early and easy source of leather for leather armor, tied directly into what they're already doing.

LET US SMELT ROTTEN FLESH.