Not to mention, if they maxed relic at 205 and then up to 210, why would you initally bother when you could just get a Thordan weapon in about a night of grinding after you learned the fight.
If Relic had been released in 3.1 (or even 3.0, since there's no reason for the i170 step at least to have been delayed), then you make Thordan drop a different reward (e.g. a i210 ring). In fact, most people were under the impression that Thordan wouldn't drop weapons at all (or certainly not i205) because of the Relic (as was claimed) being available.