Very few people have the time to conquer the hardest challenges in the game AND complete the relic questilne. Yoshi - I think you are missing the appeal these weapons have to your playerbase. There is something appealing about a weapon that continues to evolve and is not tossed away every other patch. Relic weapons are the famed legendary Final Fantasy weapons (Excalibur, Masamune, etc.). These are weapons that almost every Final Fantasy fan would like to obtain. Thus why ONLY develop them for players with a ridiculous amount of time on their hands who are NOT looking for challenges?

I think the solution here is simple. Keep the relic questline as it is - but add alternative paths to get to the ultimate destination. An alternate path might be "Complete all of the Extreme Primal Trials and the Binding Coil of bahamut without echco and under their original item level caps." Not only does this make earlier content worthwhile again but it keeps a large chunk of the playerbase busy that does not want to spam beast tribe quests and farm gil on a daily basis. Neither path are easy - but this way you cater to all of your players as opposed to just the ones who do not like challenges and have lots of time on their hands.