At least you were able to progress on your own at your own pace and Relic felt far more personal.
I guess many wanted to finally move away from the grind fates for content (which SE over use for content and events), and Eureka turned out to be fate grind again with some "added" elements i suppose.
ARR Relic felt more exciting at the time (do Primals under geared, etc.. and there was challenge at least)

As for making it meaningful... you will always get different opinions on that matter. As example i think Stormblood Relic was a complete waste of time and not worth doing and is the first Relic i will not have completed to the end.
This is all just my opinion and my own views.