Foes CAN seek you out to attack you. But it doesnt NORMALLY happen every day. Heh, never mind six different sets of enemies seeking you out − all on the same day!
Every day!
It is absurd.
It's not. It's normal for a lot of games. Most games take place in hostile territory. A dungeon, a hostile controlled wilderness area, a hostile city, the underdark, whatever.
At a lot of people's tables, foes are looking to kill you. If you've killed some of them already, they're actively searching you out, rallying alies, coordinating a search, preparing defenses, etc.. In addition, there are foes who randomly may wander by where your party is located. There are entire subsets of rules for both the foes seeking you out, and the wandering monsters, along with a subset of spells intended to deal with those situations. This is part of the game at a lot of tables, on a regular basis.
Resting safely is a challenge. Resting safely for 16 hours every day would be very challenging in a lot of games and is not normal for those games without the protection provided by other spells usually.
If you're finding your adventures are almost always such that you safely stay out of harms way for 16 out of every 24 hours I'd suggest that's not your typical adventure.
I am not saying it's wrong, or bad. I am saying I don't think it's
typical, and it would explain why you think mage armor is more powerful than it is - because for your games it lasts "the entire adventuring day".
And if you come to understand many other people's games that's not how it works, maybe you will understand their objection to your position better.