>How can you compare arials and elves/drow without bringing up
>the biggest disadvantage for elves/drow? Elves/drow have an
>uncoverable material vulnerability that arials don't have.
>Arials can completely negate their vulns or reduce them but
>elves/drow cannot and water/lightning weapons are few and far
>between compared with mithril/iron.

Arials can't cover water, so they're at least at a disadvantage against invokers. I admit that's a pretty niche disadvantage. They also miss out on some primo gear. For most people that's not an issue, but we're talking about the "upper reaches" here, so it might bear consideration. Arials lack perma-sneak. Their big advantage, permaflight, is rendered mostly irrelevant if the character is going Fortress. They also lack swiftstrike. While swiftstrike isn't "the bomb", it's arguably more useful than permaflight/wingsweep if we're comparing elf-fortress to arial-fortress.

I'm not saying elves are superior to arials, necessarily, but I think the comparison is a little closer than you suggest.