B5 always felt a little like Mass Effect in that civilization is anchored to specific points to a large degree. Relays constrain things much more in ME,
Bit of a derail, but no, the relays
don’t constrict travel anywhere near as much the realities of hyperspace in B5. Citadel level ME ftl is on its own faster then voyager era warp drive and the static build up problem was
already easily accounted for by planning your travel routes even
before the development of the ODSY drive. You could, with the right planning and preparation cross a territory the size of B5 Younger Race space in a matter of days, or the entire galaxy in just a few decades. Not for nothing that Citadel space measures itself in
thousands of colonized planets(both inhabitable garden planets and even volcanic
hellholes where you have to live in domed cities) and the territory of the Younger races is only something like a 100+. Even discounting the lack of a galactic purge every thousand years, travel is just easier.
The reason why the relays are so important and why everyone uses them is because they make things
easy. You can travel hundreds or even thousands of light years almost instantly and you don’t even use up fuel while traveling. The relays are too advantageous
not to use which is they are such an effective trap, they are basically a river system in space, ensuring that space capable races will always make use of them the same way pre-railroad civilizations on earth usually gravitated towards nearby major rivers.
Sorry about the derail and the rant, but bad ME fanon just
annoys me.