I think the Efreet suggestion could be a pretty meaningful race if it were changed to a permanent boost of one fireball damage per level. Not sure what the conversion rate should be (maybe 200 points?). But as it is I think it's already difficult to give elf and gnome comparable playtime relative to each other, and introducing a third caster-based race only makes that worse.
What I'm much more interested to see is how the race building upgrades will work. Does anyone know what the plan is for that? I haven't the faintest idea what they would do, but I like the fact that the button is there.