So why are the crafter relics.. bad.

[Deceptus]

The Relic should be your BiS item when its required, not 4 months after.

This has never been a thing even for DoW / DoM Relics. They are the strongest by the end of the expansion, but definitely not when you first acquire them on step 1

But on topic, this shows that CBU3 is at least considering warming up to putting modifiers on gear and not just the traditional sub stats which is a substantial leap forward in item design for them.