The same reason we get tokens from EX-Primals as well as weapon drops.
Insurance.
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I'm more inclined to believe those items are for the relic weapon.
IIRC, we only get precise Bolt, Lense, Spring and Shaft, no Pedal nor Chain, so one item per Alexander part.
Nope. They're for the relic. It'd make no sense that they'd be for i210 Gordian gear considering there's no cranks, springs, or chains.
You need 10x of each of those precision pieces to get a token for the last stage of the relic. They're not exchange items for gear.
See: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme..._weapon_guide/
Which is good news. With Diadem gear being BIS for everything but weapon, there's literally no reason to nerf A3S.
As I said in the message you quoted, that was only a guess (early discussions with friends upon discovering the new items)
AS3 already bears no purpose other than banging your head upon a brick wall. Nerfing it wouldn't do anything. People wouldn't go more at it than they already do. And they don't
All in all though, considering the pile of trash farm that the new relic is, I would have loved for it to be the new way to get gordian though. That would have made an even better reason to farm alexander (which will be the fastest way to proceed anyway)