Armadillo scutes can be used to upgrade weak armour

Amardillo scutes can currently be used to create dog armour, but this is a limited use case for wanting to interact with the amardillo.

I suggest that, by treating scutes as reinforcing material, the player can craft 'scutted' leather and gold armour (using the original armour piece plus a quantity of scutes) to create slightly stronger and more durable leather and gold armour. 

Leather and gold armour currently have some niche use cases (for snow and piglins); however, their cons outweigh their benefits, and they're currently not very used by players even for these purposes. Instead of trying to balance the base items, making the player work for the upgrades is what Minecraft is all about, opening up new gameplay loops and farms, mob interactions and armours and utilizing an otherwise 'one-and-done' mob.