I raid, and I think that the current relic stage is a huge step up from previous.
I'd like to see more substance of the whole thing (a more involved story, challenging content) - but I get that isn't really what the relic is about. Accepting that, I think this level of grind in 2.3 is appropriate.
That is impressive

I am almost done my 2nd 210, so four is a good feat for sure. Most of my friends are still finishing their first.
I definitely agree that running alex over and over is crazy, it was definitely the fastest way to farm the pieces, but also the fastest way for me to uninstall. I did about 30 A1N and 20 A4N runs in total. Other than that for both relics, I've done roulettes/beast tribes/hunts/generic tome rewards.