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So I started playing this as a way to flirt with 40k without diving head first into huge armies like I did many years ago. I initially picked up Tau as a way to get away from my usual Chaos and I'm not seeing much good in the roster. Am I wrong? Do they get better late game or do they just stay sub-par?

My initial list was a little different but I wanted to have another go at it with this;
Shas'ui with carbine and markerlight
Specialist with rail rifle and photo visor x2
Pathfinder with carbine and markerlight x3
Recon drone.
Are there better starting lists?

In the event that Tau don't pan out I have a back of of Necrons and was looking to start with this;
Appointed with carbine and phase shifter/photo visor
Immortal with blaster and phase shifter/photo visor x2
Deathmarks with disintegrate and phase shift/photo visor x2

Again, is this decent, is there something better. The phase shifter and photo visor are interchangeable for the points so I'm not sure which is better to start with.

Thanks for your help.

You'll find some really useful Necron info in this thread: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/723393.page

Thanks I'll read up on that.

No input on Tau? Does that mean everyone else is finding similar problems?

I have yet to play so take my advice with a grain (or shaker) of salt.

1) for less than the cost of a Specialist with Rail Rifle you can get another Recon drone with a burst cannon. Depending on your opponents force, you are far likelier to get more out of the S5 sustained fire than the single high strength multi-wound shot.

2) iirc a model has to give up shooting their 30 point gun to use their markerlight. Solution? Don't give a gun to the guy with a markerlight. Get a few recruits to tote them around.

3) bodies. Tau are kind of squishy, so having more bodes is better than more toys. You want to avoid bottle tests.

The issue I have with the recon drone and why I'm reluctant to get two (And even one kind of) is BS 2 and no room for advancement. Yea a markerlight will keep him at 5's to hit but with as many other modifiers are being thrown around I feel like the majority of shots are going to be 6+. Where at least with a specialist he can improve and be a he'll of a shot potentially.

I hadn't considered markerlight only models, I'll have to juggle things around and see where it gets me.

I recently fought a few games against a Tau-kill team, was fielding Skitarii at the time, few things I learnt would be.

Tau suffer a pretty annoying range disadvantage they need an accelerator drone to even the playing field, my models could be getting shots off usually 2 turns before the Pathfinders could even get into range to return fire. It's not so bad with the usual 24" of other armies, but it's definitely a painful thorn for them.

The burst cannon drone is seldom useful, it's like a flamethrower in the sense it's a great terror weapon, no one wants to be in the line of sight with that hail of gunfire. But in practice the drone is not likely to be hitting anything unless it's charging you out in the open.

My opponent didn't bring any Markerlights to the matches, so I know that without them, Tau are ironically one of the worst shooting teams available. Using the lights to paint targets for railguns (Maybe Ion Rifles for a more mobile team) is a great idea. In that scenario the railguns are probably going to be doing the majority of the shooting (maybe you want to put a man in front of them so they can't be targetted?) It seems like you are going to be making heavy use of Markerlights, if that is the case I would drop the photo-visors, they become redundant when the markers already negate cover. Some reloads would be good for the railguns too, they're liable to malfunction. Having a cadet with only a markerlight isn't a bad idea if you need a cheap spotter too.

Yea I started over with a slightly different list, managed to start with 9 models, but after 6 games I'm still not seeing any good in the list.
I got mostly good advancements, bs4 pathfinder, marksmen rail rifle, ammo hound rail rifle and a few others but never won a game or even came close really.
To me it seems like all the things that are supposed to be there to make up for the lack of stats doesn't really do it.
Another local Tau player is many more games in then I am and also has yet to win.

Also noticed that for mission it doesn't seem like being the attacker in things like raid and scavenge are really worth all the trouble, maybe that's just me.

Who are you actually fighting?

There's a battle-report sub-forum, some people there might be able to give some advice if you were to give a rundown of one of your rounds. Tau will have a harder time in the early games given their poorer statline, but in lategame they will likely perform much better, given their superior firepower.