But doesn't gathering racial intel on (two) populations also give research and class design intel?
I think these things are relatively rare compared to the active sensor intel, so probably what happens is that the game rolls an active sensor reveal several times in a row (not improbably so), then picks a sensor but there is only one to select.
Honestly I think ELINT needs a bit of a rework, sensor intelligence is pretty useless since you can get an accurate estimate of sensor resolution and range just from seeing the signature + doing five seconds of
typing the numbers into a calculator math. I'd rather see the overall ELINT rate gain reduced in exchange for only 'useful' intelligence being available, like ship schematics or techs.