"The relic can upgrade" is not really a good point.
It'll take time to upgrade a relic to the next step.
It'll take time to drop a better weapon in the next item tier.
The only difference is that you can choose the stats, but that's a huge difference, given that other i110 weapon can have a less useful stat. AND, if the i110 weapon has a bonus to Deter (Although, not sure if that happens), it'll actually have less total stat bonuses that the Novus.