Relics are, have always been, and will always be, glam. Sometimes for a VERY short time they are better than other items, but they are glam. Their purpose is to give you something to spend time on between patches. See:ARR relic, capable of taking 30-40 hours for each job's weapon, and in the end it was only 5 ilevel above augmented ironworks. Admittedly the customized substats could do interesting things to what counted as optimal, but none the less relics are glam and side content to keep you busy, not really a 'work for this to get a weapon upgrade' stuff.

A lot easier to accept it when you realize that it's just putting time in to get a shiny thing. Also, that HW WHM weapon, mmmmm. Simple, shiny, glowy.