The Mods/Enhancements/Augments will have the same effectiveness no matter the armor type (L/M/H/A). Armoring stat boosts will also be unchanged. However, Armorings have a set effectiveness that is modified by armor type (so an armoring of a certain level will give a better damage reduction for Medium armor than Light armor). In short: Your mods will have the same effectiveness in any moddable armor, but weaker armor types give less damage reduction. (In addition, some weaker armors need to be repaired more often for more money.) That said, after a certain point you can get away with weaker armor types as long as you keep your mods up-to-date.

Only "Adaptive Armor" changes to match your best armor type. Orange and Purple gear that aren't listed as "Adaptive" in the tooltip will remain whatever armor type they list. In your example, if the armor is considered "Light Armor", equiping it on your smuggler will still use the Light Armor values for armor ratings, despite the smuggler's proficiency in Medium Armor.

What was the design intent of class-restricting certain pieces of (moddable) crafted equipment while granting non-restricted items with the same appearance through other means? For example, if I create a "Sniper's Jacket" I can only equip it on PCs of the appropriate class (Agent and Warrior), while if I manage to get the nearly identical "Black Talon Operative's Jacket" I can equip it on any character that can wear medium armor. As a crafter trying to make moddable gear for companions and alts, it's a bit limiting to have these class restrictions.

What was the design intent of class-restricting certain pieces of (moddable) crafted equipment while granting non-restricted items with the same appearance through other means? For example, if I create a "Sniper's Jacket" I can only equip it on PCs of the appropriate class (Agent and Warrior), while if I manage to get the nearly identical "Black Talon Operative's Jacket" I can equip it on any character that can wear medium armor. As a crafter trying to make moddable gear for companions and alts, it's a bit limiting to have these class restrictions.

What kind of relationships/family connections will the Legacy system allow? For instance, will the Legacy system keep track of companion marriages/allow characters to be cousins without creating their parents/aunts/uncles as player characters, etc?