This is a wonderful discussion which I have followed for many days, and not dared to interrupt.
I basically agree with Helen, because everything that Tolkien said seems to back up her point of view, but I think that Sharon and David have argued eloquently some very interesting ideas.
Right now I want to point out something. Helen, you said that Tolkien believed that Frodo's real sins were made later on: namely, his pride and his temptation to still desire the ring:
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It has gone and now all is dark and empty.
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But if his temptation and desire for the Ring still lived on, even after the Ring was destroyed and his power was quenched, how can Frodo still desired for it,
if all he desired was the Ring itself, as you argued. If in his choosing to claim the Ring, Frodo was simply obeying the demonical influence of the Ring over his mind in Sammath Naur, why would he still desire it in the peaceful Shire, years after it has been destroyed. Moreover, his choice of words "and now all is dark and empty' speaks precisely in favour of that Elvish nostalgia for the things that passed along with the passing of the Ring, the preserving of which, as David had argued, represented Frodo's motivation when he claimed the Ring.