It makes a lot more sense now, since this suit was originally designed as something the army could use in a near future, if I recall correctly the original comics had the same background story.

I personally liked the not being able to turn your head independently thing in the older movies, it has since then become one of those signature moves identifying Batman. It looks odd at first, but in the movies they've always used it to show Batman's decisiveness, if it's really possible to move the head independently then it might have ruined that 'medieval knight' style of movement,

Cheers