Sorry, but your argument is kinda ridiculous and even offensive. People that enjoy grinding aren't necessarily trying to get an achievement in a game they don't have in their own life or are trying to feel better than others. This has very, very little to do with this. Fact is, when you sink time into something and feel like you're doing effort to get something, you automatically create a memory and an experience around that thing, that item. I did the entire Zeta questline with my boyfriend and it is a memory we both have together, even in the parts that weren't as fun. I can't say the Yo-kai watch fate grind was FUN, but I had memes and conversations with my FC for months because we were, everyone, at the same map, doing something ridiculous and creating a memory regarding that stupid experience.
Also, every single game is a timesink. If don't want to feel that you "wasted time" I don't know why you would play a game, that argument leads to nowhere. The whole "games should be fun, not wasted time" is a vague response, the concept of whatever is "fun" is arbitrary and there's zero point in discussing it. Some people actually find doing roulettes and getting the same half dozen dungeons because of their terrible roulette system and almost never ever playing a single current-expansion-content uber "fun". Some people find ocean fishing "fun" (I do). Some people find that setting a goal that will take a bit up of their time and their focus on that particular thing is fun.
You can't really say what FUN is. Not even Square. What I do know is that in order to search for something FUN, Square should've given at least a new suggestion for players. Saying: keep doing what you've been doing since the start of the expansion is the least fun option of all of the possible options. In an MMO, especially a themepark with a strictly linear and vertical progression such as FFXIV, fun also means something different in which the community can actually engage. Even when the relic step was "do this stupid crystal tower if you wanna avoid DR", you had people making parties and working together towards that stupid goal, that's fun in a MMO for me. Now it's all the same as it was before the patch. No change, no suggestion, nothing. So yeah I understand why people feel like this is a lazy solution for a relic quests, that even with all it's faults, used to be something that bonded people.