I guess they're just trying to prioritise other things, they obviously understand your questions but I don't think they're gonna reschedule all there activities to do this. If they're working on "future updates" now, then they obviously do things over a long period of time. That's probably what they mean by "we're focusing on newer things now".
So it's understandable, and what he says about relic weapons, well I don't think he's avoiding the point. The currency is what makes a relic weapon right? I mean, what makes it good (like a celestial weapon in X without any upgrades, right?) So they mean that they never intended for it to be easy for this to happen.

Also, FFXI is so massive, and they are refining stuff, but there are so many things they need to do, they're prioritising the more immediate issues.

Us fans like new stuff too, they gotta keep their audience