New thread on this topic, but I have not seen it touched elsewhere:
What is the point of having Cleric as favored class for Dwarf and Orc or Wizard for Halfling?
I guess there is some attempt at game balance by providing 2 choices (one spellcasting and one not) for all races who cannot choose fav. class at will, but they do not make sense from any background point of view!
I got that gnome choices are Golarion-related, which is fair, as fav. classes reflect the culture and history of your fantasy world (the PH would try to present a "default" fantasy setting, if such a thing is possible). But in the published material so far I cannot find data which make Dwarfs and half-Orcs especially religious and endowed with theocratic societies, nor ideas about halflings' penchant for academic studies of the arcane! The elf double option is neat (as there is only one Golarion "elf" which combines sylvan and arcane elements), as well as the gnome's (I can see a bunch of gnome sorcerers with Fey bloodlines). But Dwarf, Half-orc and halfling feel like pure metagaming and symmetry devices. I would just keep the PHB choices for backward compatibility, toss the spellcasting option and add a different minor benefit to the race (such an extra language) or try to find a better match consistent with Golarion or with "default fantasy". Half-orcs, for instance, could as well have Rogue in addition to Barbarian: you have the more feral crazy-types and the ones who get caught in the underworld of Golarion urbane centers, hanging around as bodyguards or enforces (as usually seen in Pathfinder materials).