[Alpha Kodiak]

As far as the strength of a gas giant race is concerned, the real question is, what type of life would evolve on a gas giant? If you look at the race portrait of the Eee, they look more like bubbles than anything else. Probably not very strong in hand-to-hand combat. (As my son put it, all you would have to do is pop them.)

I have always pictured a gas giant race as one that floats/flies in the upper atmosphere of the gas giant. That also meshes with the baloon-like appearance of the gas giant colonization tech.

Whatever life there would be on a gas giant, I think we can safely say that it would in no way even remotely resemble life on a rock world.