Eh, hooking your arms like that is something I did with football shoulder pads as a youth too before ever wearing a vest, somewhere to rest your hands and you can move it around a bit for ventilation. (During snow games our hands would be straight down the pants to keep warm, not sure if that’s better or worse for these dipshits)

You’re absolutely right that a lot of these assholes join just for that though, pretty much every photo of cops LARPing as soldiers shows at least one carrying no plates in a vest. They don’t use them for protection and remove one or two to cool off after rucking in full battle rattle for hours….all they care about is the intimidation factor of looking like a shooter so the real weight is never carried.