Regarding these particular stats - Hedin has quite a bit of health due to SNK being a bit imbalanced (in my opinion) and afaik it is a first run with these settings, so we'll have to wait and see how it changes

Because of this amount of health, HP jewellery is irrelevant, and in the case you are talking about, full protection will of course make you tanky. The question is whether it is worth trading off that much damage, and that would depend a lot on your playstyle preferences.
Personally, on Tamora, I would upgrade armour (to make belts, but +20 defence comes as a bonus) and take a helmet - that would be 68 armour, but then the rest I would put in primary stat, which is +30 with amulet, +10 for rings (or more, depending on str/dex choice) and +10 with belt. With skill being around 60-70%, that is 30-35 average damage per hit.
So I'd say against strong mobs with high damage and high defence, the primary stat takes priority (but only if your damage is above defence ofc). Cleaning up wolves, etc which die from 1-2 hits either way - defence is better.
And if you are playing ranged, then the primary stat is even more important.
But either way, you can also swap in between. One does not exclude the other if you have enough resources.