Producer live letter 1/12/16, lets discuss.

[Nalien]

Unfortunately it's abundantly clear that there are many forum participants (and by extension players in game) who - as you're pointing out - do not believe that the relic is that third path where you can obtain decent gear through long term effort, and instead feel it too should be gated behind raid difficulty content. I'll never understand the need that some folks have to disenfranchise other people to make themselves feel better.

I don't get why they can't be both... Just have two paths for completing a weapon;

Path A, pretty much what we get now, but we get it earlier and it never outclasses the current top raid reward until new the new top raid is on the way.
Path B, requires challenging content, including the final raid, and rewards a weapon superior to the top raid reward.

You know, pretty much exactly what they did with Alexander. People who just want the story go through and get i190, people who want the challenge go through and get i210. I wont say that will make everyone happy, because I know for a fact that the majority will likely cry over their Anima weapon not being as good as the Anima weapon of someone who put more effort in, but it's a start. "Casuals" would essentially get exactly what we're currently getting, people who actually want to play a challenging game can get something for it. I'd certainly be more interested in raids if something like that was attached to it... I hate Alexander, but I'd much rather run through that for a relic, than grind FATEs. Adding such an option doesn't really take anything away from the "casuals", they'd still get exactly what they're currently getting. At worst it gives them something to aspire to, a reason to get better and try playing more of what the game has to offer, though apparently we're not allowed that in this day and age... Everyone needs their medal for playing, and when everyone is a winner, nobody wins...

Funny thing, they actually had the perfect recipe for setting up something like this in 2.1... Primal Focus... I'd love to upgrade Balmung as the "hardcore" relic option...