You fail to see the point.

The problem isn't that it's time consuming, it's that it's entirely random and doesn't involve any sort of compelling gameplay.
It's boring.

You may argue that it's optional, but on the other hand, it walls off any future participation in the relic questchain for everyone skipping this step. I suppose they may make it easier later, but all that does is prove that it was a bad idea in the first place.

Sorry if we want to have fun with our "long term goals". I wasn't aware that's a bad thing.