Yeah orcs have always been in competition with dark elves, but they used to win out for the non-magical classes because of massive Str and To advantage. But with point buy, they lost a lot of that appeal I guess.
About ratlings: I do like their funny look. The problem is their skillset; they add basically no good skills at all. Detect item status is not great and gets low values for non-priests to make it worse. So their selling point is decent stats, nothing more. But their raw stats aren't good enough to make them a top choice for any class. Not enough strength to stand out as a fighter, not enough mana / learning for caster. Archer.. maybe.
So all in all I don't hate them, I just feel they are an okayish race for most classes, but never great. Unlike orcs, who used to be stellar for melee classes without find weakness. For people playing the free version of ADOM they still are.
You steal a scroll labelled HITME. The orc hits you.