Looking through the lenses of gaming in 2024 - I totally agree with you. Gaming was different back then so I don’t really consider it a mistake for when it was made. I would say more-so that the priest questline they made for the racials was a mistake. Dumping all those resources into that long questline for such a small percentage of the players to actually see when they could’ve worked on things for the masses instead.
I think the quest remaining as it is now is fine. It’s throwing a bread crumb at your “no life” community and all they get in return is an ugly black bug w/ a title - not a big deal.