Absolutely: "Middle-earth’s population seems to be living in random towns scattered throughout that terra nullius, with barely any roads or any sort of economi

Absolutely: "Middle-earth’s population seems to be living in random towns scattered throughout that terra nullius, with barely any roads or any sort of economic network between them" The situation in the novel is basically analogous to western Europe in the dark ages. Which is not surprising since that was an era of Tolkien's interest and study. Western Europe after the fall of the (western) Roman empire was economically and politically very much "shrunken" from what it had been, and a bit of a backwater intellectually and economically. Infrastructure became poorly maintained for a couple centuries. Tolkien just extended that out over a thousand years or so, and extended the lifespan of the characters involved and added multiple "falls" -- 2nd age Gondor, Numenor, 1st age Beleriand, and beyond even to the time of the Noldor in Valinor before the kin slaying.