It's dense as hell, admittedly.

As noted at the start of the revised text blocks, Biological/NBC-Superior, Environmental-Standard, Thick Plating-Substandard, bonus tech biocybernetics, the applied science of using crude genetics & bionics with contrastingly good neural integration to bolt shit onto people and warbeasts, sometimes involving a dip in a modificative genevat. The rest of the technologic text is elaborative as to how it works and is fluffed, with the particular point that the shielding & plating are doing some of the other's technical legwork in-universe but functionally remaining two separate tech choices in their respective boxes. Since the system doesn't actually have any point where a component is ever powered down, and therefore no time in which crunchwise one will levy weapons against only shields or only armor this means more or less nothing in terms of the counter-based balance.