"Coming into its own" is too much!

[Neophyte]

This is a problem with the games' content, but assuming it wasn't, I would be doing things I want to do and playing the game without being the feeling of being harried by a timer or the fear of wasting my efforts. My experience would be more "I want to do this." instead of "I have to do this.".

Which is kinda what I do now thing that I want to do. And why I don't care much for the defense of the relic.

This is no problem with the games content, it's the nature of content. You can do something for the first time only once. And even randomizing dungeons and such stuff won't help much.
Every game which gets a dlc or other new content:
Either do the new stuff and repeat it or do the new stuff and stop.

Relic is the reward for staying a specific time after you've seen everything new.