This game is on a terrible state right now.

[Alleluia]

"Oh you thought Bozja needed some improvement? Let's remove the entire content instead of iterating on the concept"

They did not remove the entire concept of relic weapons. They've tried out different ideas for it every expansion. None of the relic grinds have been identical.

They likely felt that putting it behind Hildebrand was enough of a barrier this time around. And judging by the whining about it on the forums at the time, they might have had a point.

This relic grind is an attempt as a casual's grind. It involves doing a long side quest chain and then earning tomes from duties. I'm sure the next one will be an off-the-wall pvp idea or something, in Corvus probably.