How do you think they should handle relic weapons in the next expansion?

[JunseiKei]

I do wonder though if this content would be a little less controversial if it wasnt strictly tied to the Relic progression. Could that be the source of complaints?

Definitely the source of my complaint. Eureka is definitely not something I'd have wanted, let alone asked for. Diadem was only ever "OK" IMO when it introduced the Matron version. That version was great because allowed some of the rarer gathering nodes to be up all of the time. Not to mention it was a great way for shards (and still is, but good luck getting that to pop now). Like I've said before, relic is now annexed away from the rest of the game behind what is Eureka. Had Eureka been just story or... something... else, it'd have been fine? Maybe? Again, not sure if it'll even be possible to get the Eureka-tied weapons once Eureka falls out of favor (since a lot of the FATEs done to acquire mats have mechanics that sort of rely on a ton of people being around).