Why dwarves are cool in most settings: they're little fucking manlets that are always the buttmonkey of their setting, but they man up, grow some beards, drink some beer, and hack off the legs of all their enemies.
Look at dwarves in LoTR, Warhammer, and DA: they constantly get shat on but they get the fuck over it and adapt.
Why elves are lame as shit in most settings: they're usually the oldest race, the strongest magic users, have elf privilege, and still quickly declining to the point where they're basically on the way out or enslaved. Or just weird sex freaks.
They've been reduced to a big tiddy elf waifu/slave meme.