Why would you even want to be an elf if you don't want to be an elf? If you want to be a catfolk, just play as a catfolk. If you just want the willpower boost then, well, I do think that the bonus stats should be disconnected from race entirely. Even though you can relatively quickly TF out of whatever your starting race is, I don't like that it makes you pick specific races just to have slightly better stat distributions.
A lot of CoC2 in design and decisions is trying to make sure that race and transformatives are separate from gameplay capability (aside from soulbinds, because they're major decisions). They did things like make it so that what stats you can level up are no longer tied to your current race, and remove the tail whack power despite it being functionally useless anyways. So it's pretty weird that still just have this, even if you aren't actually pressured to stay with your starting race.
To be honest, I feel like race attribute should give a choice - Each race already previously had three relevant attributes, just let us choose one of the three at character creation. It would give us a little flexibility.
Human: Presence, Toughness, Cunning
Wyld Elf: Willpower, Agility, Cunning
Catfolk: Agility, Cunning, Presence
Lupine: Strength, Toughness, Cunning
Orc: Toughness, Strength, Willpower