Why is this game called "Mass Effect" if there are no Mass Relays?

Because parents wont let their kids buy Alien Bang Time.

We still utilize the Mass Effect in all of our technology like ship drives, kinetic barriers, weaponry, or biotics. The Mass Relays were just the biggest example of the Mass Effect in action.

That sad I am really sad that there aren't any Mass Relays in this game other than a couple mentions. 

I read it more as the Geth re-purposed three Mass Relays and used them to make their FTL telescope, but yeah even if they didn't build one from scratch being able to manipulate them that much shows they are capable of building one if they have the resources and a reason to do so. 

Just another reason to have the Geth come to Andromeda.

I think the asari are only capable of it because of the massive Prothean beacon on Thessia though, which is probably another reason the Matriarchs don't since then that secret might be revealed to the rest of the asari and the other races which would be bad. I don't know if the asari who came to Andromeda would know that knowledge, unless the Benefactor is an asari matriarch who does or the Benefactor is a group of people one of whom is a matriarch who knows. 

Ah, okay. And yeah the Initiative right now is nowhere near the point where they can build Mass Relays even if they knew how. Now I could see the Geth or Ryder using the Remnant to possibly build one since they have the capacity to. 

The mass effect is throughout MEA.

I kinda dislike not involving the mass relays (I'm one of those that consider them somewhat iconic to the series), but mass effect is far more than the mass relays left by the Reapers.

Why would they though, they have far more pressing issues. And building one mass relay is useless anyway, you need a pair for it, and then to place it somewhere useful to go to. I don't think this will happen unless future installments are set many years after ME:A.

I actually think Bioware should have just made this a new sci-fi IP about exploring space, with the mission being humans-only at first and then meeting new aliens along the way. While I appreciated having the ME alien species around, most of the characters would have made as much sense as humans as they did as asari, salarians, turians, or krogan. The troubled history of the krogan was a factor in a few places, but is there any reason that Tann, for example, couldn't have just been an uptight human who unexpectedly became Director? Is there anything about Lexi's personality that's specific to her being an asari?

Most of the time, the Shepard trilogy was just baggage that created confusion as to why people who clearly knew about the Initiative never spoke about it (e.g. Liara), or why the Ryders' knowledge of Shepard and the Reapers seems so scant and incomplete given their background, or how all these preparations took place without most people noticing or caring. It would be like if Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking invented time travel and everybody just said "oh, that's nice" and went back to watching cats on YouTube.

Of course, putting the title "Mass Effect" on the game probably earned it some sales that it might not have gotten otherwise. On the other hand, making it a new IP might have encouraged people to view it on its own terms rather than expecting the same sort of style and experience that they got from the Shepard trilogy.

The Mass Effect actually refers to element zero, not the mass relays. Mass relays use element zero on a grand scale.

That's what Quarian Ark DLC will be all about.

I hope.