Different tech can lead to advantages that isn't necessarily better because its more advanced. Case in point, different weapontech works better against specific sheildtech.
Proof that they weren't more powerful: Deus Ex Machina. Even while 'winning' the war, they left their heart out where Trent could hit it, and then didn't defend the object. This suggests they were rather thinly stretched.
Furthermore, the suggestion that nomads have been growing a lot (and I don't contest this) is made in a vacuum, with the suggestion that they've grown a lot, in relation to their competitors, the humans, which I contest. It seems very apparent to me that humans have spent the last two decades in a rather extreme industrial boom, producing new things for everyone, in vast quantities. At least space based industrial capacity has more than doubled, probably tripled, the population has grown.
I'm not willing to accept Nomad growth at such a rate that it moves from the post hypergate collapse low point, to past the industrial booming Sirius humans (which have grown a huge deal, from a rather larger base point) in the last 17 years. Such a growth rate would be...insane.
