There's a realistic balance for both gear value and exclusive items.

In terms of gearing, SE screwed up making gear completely vertical and constantly outdating gear nearly every patch. There isn't any worth in a relic weapon outside glamor after the ilvl goes up, as it constantly does. As such it only makes sense they tear down the requirements to get it.

As for exclusive items I do agree we should trend carefully with them. That said, I do think it's okay to eventually bring them back. However there should be one heck of a cool down (years) before bringing an exclusive item back into the game. For example there's some 1.0 stuff which was great for me to have for the 10+ years, sure. But at this point who else is running around in my Asuran Gauntlets? Why are we still hording this item for the 4 people total still playing the game? I exclusively had these for 10 years. I'm good. At some point it doesn't make sense.