Ooh, interesting topic! Unfortunately I can't add too much because I'm not well-read on fantasy, despite how much I love it xD.
Elves from the Lord of the Rings
This is because J.R.R Tolkein essentially started the elves-are-beautiful-and-perfect trope. Far as I know, elves were more like goblins and naughty faeries before LOTR. It's not the ethereal perfection of elves that appealed to me, but the fact that orcs are tortured elves. You look at elves and you see something that is perfect and untouchable except...they aren't, untouchable. Even something "holy" as them, magical long-living beings who can pass into the revered West, can be taken and turned into something horrible--the orcs. To me, it felt like there was an underlying hypocrisy to the elves. They would damn humankind for being "inherently corrupt and weak", but they themselves are not invincible to corruption. Much of the orc army is made out of them. This added nice layers to the elves for me.
I don't mind when races are made to be perfect when handled in a manner like those elves, when it can be analyzed and you have something to takeaway from it as opposed to perfection for perfection's sake.
I had a couple more races in mind but I have completely forgotten them after writing this out... 😅