People like the illusion of comfort. Ifrit EX is a shorter fight with less "rules" than Rivenroad (Hard). A lot of people still haven't even finished the relics that they want. Weapons are always shinier than accessories as well. I think it was confirmed that this quest is disappearing for 2.0, but it's not a priority for a lot of people.

It's not really a hard fight. The first Ifrit win for most LSs probably took a week, give-or-take. My LS didn't even TRY this fight until two weeks ago and we won on our third night. You just need a good PLD and a decent WHM. Use Divine Veil for the first block (since it can last for two Plasma Acoustics) and Aegis second. You want the more useful ability to cool-down sooner. (Divine Veil also gives AoE regen to the DDs right away, but the PLD should mostly be curing DRG for hate and to keep the WHM focused on just them). Other than that, another thing I did in my LS that most other videos don't do is we didn't use Lunar Curtain. Instead, we went in with a timed Resonance + Thundaga x3, then did STR potions and zerg'd a bit (BRD PLD MNK DRG and Aero for DoT). We all survive that first Megaflare because of the damage we dealt and we're free to use Mega-Potion of STR over and over every 5 minutes after a teleport-spree. This helps deal with the time issue (winning with 3-4 minutes left vs. winning with only seconds left)