Belhi & Velhart: IMO The relic could have been something that would never get nerfed. That would have been grinding hard for it. If it never got nerfed but only thing accepted is entering a dungeon unsynced to your level that could have worked. Everything else is a treadmill progression so new weapons would have gotten relased constantly with new ex primals tomes etc but the relic could have stayed sacred rather than something that it would loose its value with time it could have been even harder to obtain making it very rare/time consuming/costly/grindy. I truly beleive a player base would persue this if people knew it would never get nerfed around the corner but instead beeing something that constantly grew with you and your level instead of it beeing useless by 4.0. Thats one horizontal thing that could be put into the game while everything else can be veritcal treadmill mindless grind to be "first" with something thats useless by april.
There is no need to copy FFXI for anything FF14 can be unique but still make certain things rewarding rare and timeless instead of feeling that whatever you do now is useless and not worth the effort since in a few months its just gotta get nerfed anyways.