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"A good commander first seeks to put himself beyond the possibility of defeat, then waits for his opponent to make a mistake." -Sun Tzu, Thae Art of War. (Paraphrase)

Kind of what I see in the Tau. Expand, push into new resources, back away from threats. Then wait for an oppurtunity. They enjoy a unified interstellar empire, not just connected empire. They are technologists, and have already paralleled most other races in technology, so future advances put them a cut above. And lack of psyker powers is their number one asset. They might need it to defeat necrons like everyone suggests, until they get good enough at tech to literally 'dismantle' if you will the Grand Toaster Army. They'll be fine, unless their unity continues to degrade like it has with the farsight enclaves.

Saying the Tau can surpass Necron technology (which is millions of years ahead of even the Eldar, except in the field of psychic engineering) is like saying pigs can fly.

Tau have huge potential but like eveyone else have their weakneses:

There is potential civil war looming over the Farsight situation.
They do not seem to fully understand the dangers of the human and other psykers they are eomcompasing in the Greater Good. Whilst they are "blunt" thats no full protection - they can be physically corrupted and attacked directly.
They have been "noticed" by both the Dark Eldar and the Necrons - not good.
They have limited Warp drives and without Navigators - and the inherient dangers of them - seem to have reached their limits here. This will also strain the unity of their empire as it grows larger as they don't have astropaths either.
machine inteliigences turned on humanity - there is always the possibility that as the Tau AIs get better they may rebel - and/or become corrupted by the warp themselves.