I personally prefer the Nexus stage, which makes it even worse for me. I mean, leaving aside I haven't actually gotten that far yet, if I want to keep that look but also have the stats of further stages, I then have to go through the Atma, Animus, and Light grinds all over again. If they made it so I could skip even just one of those steps, that'd be incredible.

A great way of doing this, in my opinion, would be to simply add each step of a Relic you've already completed to the Calamity Salvager. You've already done it, so it's not like you're breaking anything by getting them again.