No need to be sorry, the Mrrshan deserve it to be optimized 
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> What about translating their "uncanny accuracy" skills to more accurate planetary bombardment attacks? In planetary bombardment mode a colonist is killed by mrrshan bombers for every 200 points of damage (instead of regular 400). This means their eventual ground troops will have an easier fight with more factories still around to loot/refit.
Accurate planetary bombing would be a great help for ground combat if used wisely. Again, a good help for the human player. However the AI would be, compared to the usual situation, more likely to glass the planet by overdoing the damage. I think that a ground combat bonus gives the race a similar advantage, but is much more fool-proof and AI-friendly.
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> Outside of a quick race to range ~4-5 does propulsion help with expansion?
I play huge maps from time to time. Now for some relax I started with Klackons on hard, and having just Range 5, Nuclear Drives and Controlled Inferno I managed to colonize 55 planets before getting to war with any AI in the year 2400. However, I was quick to get Duralloy Armor in order to be able to build long range colony ships (with reserve fuel tanks), and that is what enabled this expansion. There is a significant difference between having range 5 and range 8 on a huge map. I am not sure if the AI is smart enough to see Duralloy Armor as a crucial expansion technology and to put reserve tanks on a colony ship.
Propulsion is not only for range, but also for speed. With speed the colony ships are faster, you might get there before the enemy. You are also able to better move your fleets and defend the new colonies. During a war, having good propulsion tech is strategically important: you can control the movements of several enemy fleets with just one own fleet. I believe that good propulsion tech is the one ingredient which makes Alkaris better than the Mrrshans.
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> I'm extremely interested in how tying population productivity to WEAPONS tech level instead of planetology tech level would play out.
Hard to say for me. It is probably better for races which prefer researching weapons to planetology, and worse for these who do it the opposite way
> Can a race truly focus on a single area and compete?
I believe this is the beauty of this game - if you have a weakness, you can devise some very special strategy to compensate and still win. Surely a single-focus strategy is possible for a human player - just see the tough challenges which people report on in this forum. For example, a few years ago there was a Klackon challenge to win without building ANY factories at all. The players focused on early planetology research, and were able to expand the Klackon imperium even faster than usual, as planetology + population was all that mattered. Ultimately the Klackons won - which I think would not happen if the AI was playing them.
For an AI player, single-area focus is not good as the AI is not clever enough to compensate for the weaknesses. So again, the problem with the Mrrshans is IMHO that the AI does not know how to play them.
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> What about translating their "uncanny accuracy" skills to more accurate planetary bombardment attacks? In planetary bombardment mode a colonist is killed by mrrshan bombers for every 200 points of damage (instead of regular 400). This means their eventual ground troops will have an easier fight with more factories still around to loot/refit.
Accurate planetary bombing would be a great help for ground combat if used wisely. Again, a good help for the human player. However the AI would be, compared to the usual situation, more likely to glass the planet by overdoing the damage. I think that a ground combat bonus gives the race a similar advantage, but is much more fool-proof and AI-friendly.
-----------------
> Outside of a quick race to range ~4-5 does propulsion help with expansion?
I play huge maps from time to time. Now for some relax I started with Klackons on hard, and having just Range 5, Nuclear Drives and Controlled Inferno I managed to colonize 55 planets before getting to war with any AI in the year 2400. However, I was quick to get Duralloy Armor in order to be able to build long range colony ships (with reserve fuel tanks), and that is what enabled this expansion. There is a significant difference between having range 5 and range 8 on a huge map. I am not sure if the AI is smart enough to see Duralloy Armor as a crucial expansion technology and to put reserve tanks on a colony ship.
Propulsion is not only for range, but also for speed. With speed the colony ships are faster, you might get there before the enemy. You are also able to better move your fleets and defend the new colonies. During a war, having good propulsion tech is strategically important: you can control the movements of several enemy fleets with just one own fleet. I believe that good propulsion tech is the one ingredient which makes Alkaris better than the Mrrshans.
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> I'm extremely interested in how tying population productivity to WEAPONS tech level instead of planetology tech level would play out.
Hard to say for me. It is probably better for races which prefer researching weapons to planetology, and worse for these who do it the opposite way
> Can a race truly focus on a single area and compete?
I believe this is the beauty of this game - if you have a weakness, you can devise some very special strategy to compensate and still win. Surely a single-focus strategy is possible for a human player - just see the tough challenges which people report on in this forum. For example, a few years ago there was a Klackon challenge to win without building ANY factories at all. The players focused on early planetology research, and were able to expand the Klackon imperium even faster than usual, as planetology + population was all that mattered. Ultimately the Klackons won - which I think would not happen if the AI was playing them.
For an AI player, single-area focus is not good as the AI is not clever enough to compensate for the weaknesses. So again, the problem with the Mrrshans is IMHO that the AI does not know how to play them.