Something to be said is that I feel like relics by design are meant to be for people who have excessive amounts of time and want a timesink that gets them something. They are basically a NEET farm. FFXIV is such that anyone just playing like an hour a day will basically be about 90% as powerful as those who have the best of the best gear available; raiding, relics, etc., either lets you get it sooner, or just a little extra.

That said, even with all that in mind, I feel a lot about the relic this time was unacceptable.

1. Started too late. We all knew it would be a bad idea if it came this late, bided our time to see if we were wrong, and we weren't. Should be prioritized x.1 and given more breathing room.
2. I think having multiple ways to build it is good, but poorly balanced, and poorly implemented.
3. No one talks about it but it's always needlessly confusing. People often don't know what quest is next, for example, or whatever these edgy confusing item names you need mean. It would be cool if we had something simple like "Lv 1", "Lv 2", "Lv 3", etc. added to the name of relic quests, materials, weapons, etc., to quickly read what is for what step. Or if you are just going to use item level, tie it to the quest names and materials. Can still keep the flavourful names and lore but just tag that to the end.