See, if you used your starting gold to buy Starting Equipment, that would make even LESS sense because there is some magical vendor somewhere that has these items.
By using Sov creation points, you are building a character. Say, "this is Bob, his family has passed down his ancestral armor for generations upon generations. He spends so much time caring for his ancient yet sturdy armor, that he has little time for other academic pursuits." Something to that effect. Otherwise, if you have to spend GOLD for armor, then its a matter of how useful gold is at the beginning, and how much of it you can have. Also, Sov points will invariably suffer overall.
It would boil down to how useful gold is at the start of the game, and invariably, either everyone will spend all their gold, or no-one will spend any. On the other hand, deciding your full character, starting equipment, skills, n stats overall ... that is a bit more useful. Game Play + Fun over ... whatever led you to need the alternative.
