They only meant something if you consider working an ungodly amount of time performing tedious tasks for a small upgrade to your performance fun. Personally, I like to be having fun the entire time.
@ Sagittario: Guess what? This is an MMO, where 99% of the top players are the ones who have the most time to spend in the game. If you don't agree with the system, play another genre. In FFXI, a game where your work:reward ratio has always been astoundingly deplorable, yeah, owning a Relic used to be a huge achievement no matter how you slice it. Now it's just, "Oh, another Masa/Kannagi/Vere/Almace.."
That said, I prefer today's FFXI-lite as opposed to the olden days for a myriad of obvious reasons.