Something needs to be done in the raid for BB R8s

So there is no reward for better relic level until r9. 

Wait, WHAT? You get 1.2M pts for r5, 1.8M for r7, 2.7M for r8. Of course there are rewards for better relic tiers below r9. 

As for difficuIty & QoL, I haven't taken BB to r8, but I understand it's worse than r7. 

That said, r7 is easy with the right mods and r8 is certainly doable even if I am not the person to ask about the difficulty. 

You are choosing to make it as difficult as possible by declining to remod. If that's how you play the game, that's fine, but I don't see why CG should provide an incentive for not remodding. As noted, they already reward higher relics with higher raid rewards. The ease with which you can burn through r9 is a QoL reward for maxing out your team. 

This all seems well balanced to me.