I think having your relic progression locked behind an airship 'raid' type thing with your FC would be annoying... not least for those who have very small FC's (like me!), or for people who aren't in one at all!

Relic grinding to date has been something you could complete solo. Sure, you could speed things up by light grinding or doing dungeon runs with a premade group, but otherwise DF could get the job done just fine. So I'd hope it stays that way.

But then, there are all sorts of terrible things they could have planned for us, so who knows... (Relic Scrips, 450 per week, please look forward to it!)