I don't think that all racial weaknesses should be changed (for instance, a forest-troll should burn heartily and not merely take more damage)
Just like your example in a past thread about castle entrances that are too small for any race to enter except small/tiny races being "realistic but spoiling the fun," I would say the same about your point about forest-trolls. Yes, most conceptions of trolls include a severe weakness to fire. But if you make them "burn heartily" in this game, you make them quite useless to play if you want to be at all viable in high level combat. "Realism" is great until it becomes counterproductive to a fun game.
I am not interested in making these damage type dependant rather than material specific
How would material vulnerabilities work, exactly? For example, if you are vulnerable to mithril weapons, will you take more damage from the entire weapon or will the effect of the mithril just be upped or what?
(Minstrel has notably left out potential "less extreme drawbacks")
Why is that notable? Unless you have ideas for everything, you can have ideas for nothing? I think removing or diminishing something that makes a lot of races unplayable is a good idea. Is that an inexpressable idea unless I have already figured out what should replace it (if anything...after all, we already have other drawbacks plus xp mods that can be used to re-balance the races)?
I find that a baffling attitude, to be honest. Putting forth the idea will hopefully lead to more discussion, some of which might be ideas for replacements. And certainly if I think of anything, I'll be sure to mention it.
