This type of relic step was part of the Zodiak and Anima relics, even down to the RNG numbers.
The difference is that the RNG was greatly buffed many patches later since it wasn't the best weapon per class anymore.

Anima's Fate grind could also be completely skipped if you traded in the top version of the Zodiak weapon. I did this, and the Lilith Rod Zeta Replica just sits in my glam chest with every other stage.

This exact issue was happening to players years ago. Sometimes RNG is trash. It sucks. It's life. But I do find it odd that the devs didn't add a skip for the first stage for those of us that grinded the older weapons.

With how low the rates have been for some, it genuinely might've been faster to make a whole Manderville weapon to burn instead.