There's a difference between what you are forced to do right then and there and what you can stock up on. You can stock up on Soldiery (to cap), Atmas, Alexandrite, Materias, Gil, etc. all over time. But you cannot stock up on dungeon clears, fates, enemy kills, leve clears or lights. That's the perspective I was offering.
I finished my Nexus axe about 5 or 6 weeks after it landed, going fairly casual on weekdays and hitting harder on weekends. In all that time I knew I was going to do ninja relic eventually. I already had a stack of alexandrite, all the atmas farmed, materia purchased or made on my person. I went straight to atma upon hitting level 50. Yes I still spent the time but I wasn't forced to spend it right then and there, unlike the animus books and the novus lights.
It's not that I am trivializing it, it's what you can do prior to trivialize it at the moment you need it. Also in my data center I found that the trick to getting Soldiery really quick is to queue chim/hydra trial. You snag a lot of first-timers in those, at least until you start forcing others who aren't first-timers to do it because you queued that specifically. Then just go back to trial spam.