This is quite true! However, also I have a bit of a rueful laugh whenever I think about LOTR's world-building because it was such a red herring for so many imit

This is quite true! However, also I have a bit of a rueful laugh whenever I think about LOTR's world-building because it was such a red herring for so many imitators who leaned so heavily into crafting their own intricate fantasy worlds but never matched the magic of LOTR because they could never recreate its heart.