What u gonna do, send your 100 javelis against is 240 units or so with malice?
If the TEC player has only 100 Javelis to your 240 seeker/disciples, then he's not very good. Javelis are very cost-effective units, and a good TEC player will have no difficulty keeping up with your fleet size. If this is a close-range battle, he'll have the Sova which will add considerable combat value, and if it's a long-range scenario he should be able to capitalize on the Akkan and be able to outnumber you. Not only that, but fleets of this magnitude should be diversified, which means hoshikos and gardas for the TEC (if not Kodiaks). If you're still doing nothing but seeker/disciple at this point then you're in serious trouble.
Malice is overrated; it has a fairly tight target cap and since it's a form of diffused damage hoshikos will negate most of it. IMO, shield regeneration is far better than malice unless you're fighting Vasari.
Late game:culture boosted and starbases make up for the economy with allegiance upgrades and trade support at his hw system planets.
The allegiance upgrade kinda sucks. You need to max out your resource income techs and place it on a 4-rock planet for it to be worth its cost. If resource focus were any good, the synergy there would make induced reverence quite useful, but as it stands resource focus is absolute crap and becomes passable with this upgrade... really not worth your time and effort.
The transcencia culture bomb isn't something you can bring out early, and a good TEC player will bring on the pain before you can get it operational. If he brings along Ogrovs, he can make you regret putting a significant investment in a starbase. This isn't something you want to pursue until your fleet is relatively mature, and a good TEC player will make it a challenge to get that far.