I think “this dude does all this amazing shit but you know that and he DOESN’T do this one thing that bugs the shit out of me” is a pretty legit place to be, though. Not, you know, as a balanced appraisal, but we don’t go to novelists or guitarists for balanced appraisals, generally, and certainly not in panel discussions or interviews.

Coming from a history-nerd perspective, I think Tolkien… kinda knows how the world works but doesn’t like it, maybe? Like, he knows Laketown is important as a trading center, he knows that’s a thing, but he doesn’t want it to be important, he wants the wood elves and the horselords and shit to be important. So he reluctantly admits that it’s a trading center and that’s a big deal, but he really doesn’t want to go into who is trading or what they trade.

Likewise Gondor, which is still basically in free-fall after the loss of Osgiliath and the defection of Umbar (because of course the river-city and the ocean trade are important and the overgrown fortress is secondary) and kind of knows this (Denethor is basically right) but won’t admit it, certainly not in an authorial voice. Note that Dol Amroth, which appears to be a sort of daughter-colony to the aristo/militarist element of Gondorian society, is the most notable vassal. Note also that whoever is growing all the fucking food and handing up all the fucking money is barely noted in the text, but that the text is careful not to suggest that it gives a full appraisal of anything but the tactical command structure. In other words, Tolkien knows there’s some major vassals he’s leaving out and that they actually matter way more than Dol Amroth (who would be out of the equation in days without Dol Wheatroth and Dol Clothtrader backing them), but he doesn’t want to talk about it.