It depends upon how you look at it. If you look at it from the perspective of those players still in minor hockey, these NCAA players were supposed to be finished competing, and it was now supposed to be getting their turn. Without offering the current players "relief" as you call it, they would have had 3 years of competition instead of the 4 that players pre-covid had. Yes, that sucks. But what many don't seem to understand, is that it sucks far more for the players still in minor hockey, a high proportion of whom should have been recruited in 20-21, 21-22 and 22-23, and will get 0 years as a result of having extended the backlog with this "relief".
Some of the very best were offered the opportunity to redshirt, yes. But with D1 schools having rosters of in some cases 27-30+ players post-covid, the main thing that has happened is that the majority of 2005 and 2006 players are not being recruited at all in order to clear the backlog. They are the ones who have been disproportionately negatively impacted by covid, despite the fact they already also lost a year of hockey too. Even a year ago, most D1 coaches said they were not even looking at 05 and 06 players, because they did not foresee having roster openings until the 2007 class graduated. To offer another year of competition for those now seeking grad degrees, at the expense of D1 opportunities for an entire age cohort, seems to be very hard to justify to me. Many of the young players who have still not found roster spots would have been recruited to D1 programs pre-Covid.
