Do relic levels even matter anymore?

Lately it feels like relics have become a pointless mechanic that does nothing for improving character performance and gives the devs a good reason to increase the difficulty of events. Sure there might be a noticeable boost to how well a toon handles themselves at say relic 9 when they recieve a 9000 increase to protection but at lower levels it doesn't seem like much happens. Yeah mods are probably more important but I remember back when toons only really needed to be at gear 12 and have a strong mod set to work well anywhere but now not even a relic 5 toon has a chance to survive unless they have god mods and good rng