Variance in player skill is hurting FFXIV's itemization design.

[Granyala]

Also, while we've seen SE have their moments with dungeon narratives, I think their dungeon narratives pale in comparison to their raid efforts. Coil, Crystal Tower, the Mhach series so far, and even Alexander all tell better stories and have larger experiences than just a dungeon. You just can't achieve the same scope with dungeon content -- even if it is sequential like the NM/HM dungeons.

Of course you could.

After all the storytelling is 99% cutscene and 1% what happens during the raid encounter
Seriously, I found the trash bosses in Coil rather anticlimactic. "Here ya go raider, fight a random plant that is attacking you... because it can. DEFEND YOURSELF! /Klingon"

SE simply doesn't choose to do so. Why is anyone's guess, though I do think they wan to reserve the "epicness of story moments" for raids.

Look at relic, it's grindy and is nothing special. FFXI relic was grindy too but had some special effect to it. At least make relic unqiue and not some grind that barely gives any purpose.

I thought the purpose of the relic is a unique weapon model (some stages with nice particleFX) and stats being able to be chosen at your leisure.