Unlike Armors, SE decided to keep Relics and Mythics relevant from 75 to 99. This was planned and the absurd Magian trials for this purpose were in the game on the day of the cap increase. SE then continued to make the superiority of RMEs a central FFXI design principle when deciding which content to add and how to motivate players to do it. They re-vamped the events that generate Relic/Mythics (Salvage, Einherjar, Dynamis, Nyzul Isle) and used Empyreans to drive activity in new events (Abyssea/Voidatch). They also made comments on these forums specifically pertaining to these three weapon classes and the balance between them.


These factors gave the clear impression that SE was interested in keeping the RMEs relevant and somewhat balanced with each other in terms of effort to obtain and utility (to some degree). JP, NA, and EU players all saw these signs and interpreted them the same way.


So people were tolerating the boredom of nightly Dynamis farming, Salvage farming, Qilin farming, etc. in order to obtain one of the best weapons for whichever job they prefer until the servers shut down. They were not doing it so that they could have one of the best weapons for a few months, and no one would have predicted that RMEs would be totally outdated with this last update. It makes total sense that RME owners would be angry. They used their playtime in a boring way in order to never have to worry about one of their 16 slots ever again on one of their jobs. Now they have to worry about all 16 of their slots again. Perhaps some of them are masochistic enough to not care, or kind-hearted enough to think "well, I can't see how this helps but perhaps it's moving us towards a better play experience for all the players." Realistically, though, this was a kick in the nuts.


Here are some other problems the update created:
* Melee and Ranged, Magic, and Pet damage are further apart than ever.
* The realistic damage potential of 1H and 2H weapons are further apart than ever.
* SE recently reduced Enmity from damage by 70%, but they just increased melee DPS by 40%.
* Now there is no real reason to regularly farm Dynamis, Salvage, Voidwatch, etc. Now the game consists of Delve and Reives.