Quote Originally Posted by Vyrerus View Post
Debatable. We didn't have to make them to get equivalently powerful weapons, and the entire process is experimental, worked on in tandem by multiple individuals. Generally Gerolt and Thavnairian Alchemists.

There's even a quest after you finish an ARR relic to make the ultimate tea kettle by going through the process one more time, albeit with truncated steps. Granted I don't think that one involved atma, but I can't quite remember how far Gerolt took the process before asking for 50 Alexandrites. Then Jalzahn asks for the same materials needed from Ifrit, Titan, and Garuda, meaning this tea kettle required that the beastmen summon their primals again... Which generally entails people getting hurt and more beastmen getting tempered.

(then there's the meta fact that since XIV is a game for entertainment, we literally did make them for entertainment, and they even feature as entertainment in FF content creator achievement hunter video type stuff... Souls used for making weapons. TEN POINTS - but we'll ignore this fact because it dilutes the conversation)
I don't know if it's fair to compare "equivalent powerful weapons" since all we had to do is wait an expansion cycle and we'd have a better one from the random blacksmith in the next town. These are meant to be special relics by the text of the game, one of a kind.

It's also difficult to assume that we have to consider all of these steps canon for every Relic because I feel that at some point I'm just strong-arming tempered Amalj'aa into summoning Ifrit yet again because daddy needs a new sword.

I'd say, that running through the questline once suggests that using souls in a limited manner wasn't that big of a deal back then. So I'd chalk it up to us either being against the massive industrialization (the planet's dyin', Cloud!) or our experiences through Shadowbringers and Endwalker changing our perspective on it, since we broadened our knowledge on the topic.