That was my first impression, too. They made relic about hamlet so we'd spam that enough to make it worth their time and money to develop it - but then the work to payoff ratio of relic is kind of meh aside from the "LOOK AT ME, I'VE GOT A RELIC" e-peen... so a lot of people just didn't want to bother...
And now the next GC rank costs the same as step one of relic -- as if to say, "Well, I know you didn't want to go for it... but now that you have the 25k why don't you spend it on the book, instead!?"
I call shenanigans.
