Yeah Neo has a point. Though really, Bethesda games haven't ever been good about being outright challenging. They're usually just as hard as you make them, by avoiding the clearly optimal options.
I didn't really use power armor much outside the glowing sea and other "appropriate" situations though. It was awkward to keep track of and felt out of character for my PC. It also didn't seem to help that much though (even the Glowing Sea radiation, that was disappointing). Possibly because I didn't put any points in armorer (suboptimal, but I didn't want my character to be an armorer). I was also focusing on single-shot rifles, so maybe I took less hits than typical.
Is it me or were single-shot rifles just the best? They give you the best accuracy obviously, best range, really good and accurate at mid-range too, and then they're the best at short range too because they included shotguns (haha)
I guess energy weapons were about as good (5-crank sniper musket, uh... 5-crank shotgun musket...) but automatic weapons just seemed baaad. Bad AND a waste of bullets.
Edit: Oh except I got an automatic rifle with exploding rounds once, and that was better automatic I think. Since I guess the bonus damage was per bullet and the shit accuracy didn't matter so much. Also bullets are as plentiful as stimpacks so meh