My take on this is that the game is in dire need of long term grinds that take a long time to complete. Most of the content we get since EW is short lived and doesn't offer anything meaningful to work towards. End result: most veterans are either bored or unsubscribed. Relic weapons used to fill this niche of long grinds, but not anymore.

My question for people who prefer tome grind is this: Are you happy with the state of the game?

Because I'm not, and relic weapons being a joke is the reason. A relic used to be something you could be proud of completing, and there's nothing to be proud of when you just buy the thing from a shop.