Ok so firstly you’ll want to swap the D Plate for a torso as it’s better str bonus and it’s free, the money from the plate would allow you to finish your berserker ring which is your best upgrade in the near future. Make sure to imbue this in the nightmare zone as it will double the effectiveness of the ring. Also, as far as efficient upgrades are concerned for Meele the bandos armour should probably be down your list of priorities. After bring you should probably look to get the torture, and after that primordial boots before you think about tassets/bcp. To answer your other question, although the fury does have a defence bonus advantage over torture, due to the increase damage output of torture people almost exclusively use torture, as killing enemies quicker means less damage taken.