After giving it some thought I have come to the conclusion that Paizo made a mistake with Elves and Gnomes. Elves get a bonus to INT, where gnomes get a bonus to CHA. It should be the other way around. Look at the descriptions of the races and it seems that elves should be the one getting the bonus to CHA and gnomes should have a bonus to INT.
Elves are generally seen as attractive to other races, and are often portrayed as having a commanding presence. They are also emotional and flighty instead of logical and disciplined. Their society is tradition bound, but relies more on individual respect than blind obedience to the rules. To me this implies CHA instead of INT.
Gnomes on the other hand are often misunderstood by other races. Gnome’s obsessive behavior and strange ways seem to resemble a form of autism. Many people with autism are actually quite intelligent and can excel in many scientific occupations, think of Sheldon from the Big Bang theory. This to me suggests INT instead of CHA.
Since most spontaneous magic is CHA based this would change the balance of the classes for the races. Elves would make better bards, oracles, and sorcerers, where gnomes would become better alchemists, wizards and witches. This actually makes a lot of sense. Elves are supposed to be a highly magical race with more spell casters than any other race. Gnomes on the other hand are supposed to love experimentation.
What I think should be done is to swap out the bonus so elves get a bonus to CHA, and gnomes get a bonus to INT. I would also change the favored racial bonus for elven spell caster to the human bonus of extra spells.
How does this sound?
I always thought Elves should have had a bonus to Wis due to flavor-wise are more assiciated with trees and nature, and the Wis bonus would make them better at being Druids.
I thought Gnomes and Dwarves should have a bonus to Int because of thier association with crafting, Dwarves being more into appraising, and Gnomes' seeming aloof and strange to other races due to thier borderline autistic obsessions.
Elves have a bonus to charisma for being attractive and commanding, but a penalty to charisma for being arrogant jerks. Net zero.