I get the complaint about relics... but in reality how different has it been.. really... outside of SB where we had Eureka?

Many relic steps in other expansions involve running older content to obtain a token, fulfill a quest requirement or earn uncapped tomestones to purchase a token.

In ARR: earn uncapped tomestones to get Atma books - do lots of dated content while earning no experience. Run dungeons for lights often gaining no other benefit.
In HW: earn uncapped tomestones to buy various tokens. Alternatively, some of these tokens doing content like tribal quests. Run dungeons for lighunts often gaining no other benefit.
In SB: unique
In ShB: complete Bozja and then can ignore pretty much all of it and earn Memories (tokens) by doing specific content (alliance raids for example). Essentially... run specific dungeons to progress it.
In EW: Run dungeons to earn tomestones. Instead of trading tomes for 3-5 different types of tokens, you can earn tomestones in various forms (dungeons, raids, PvP, hunts, etc).

My point is... whether we are doing specific old content like alliance raids or specific dungeons to move the quest forward... or running other content to simply purchase a token... what is the difference?