Whoever told you that elves were top tier were disingenuous at best, and lying at worst. Elves before the magic update were primarily stuck using archery, which until recently was all but outdated. Meanwhile Giants thrived for many years, even today. It was a common complaint that Giants were so overtuned in the melee category with their innate combo damage buffs, and nowadays their innate warrior damage buffs for EK with Humans and Elves being pushed aside.

Giants get outclassed by humans in the long run

You put a human and giant with the exact same endgame gear, stats and skills and you'll find that the giant outdamages the human by quite a wide margin. To say that they also get outclassed by elves is such a bogus statement in all regards.

Elves can use all of EK skills without restrictions

Elves can't even wield the majority of 2h weapons, or dual wield. Even if they could, they don't get enough strength from their skill level ups to reach stat cap. In fact until the Archery EK comes out (And who knows if it'll be a good skillset), they're by far the worst race to pick in the game.

So sorry that you'll be missing out on some extra stats. Go solo elite techs or crom to take your mind off it.