Nice link Sophia!
I'd guess that another difference is that the elves were invited in by the Valar, so didn't have to decimate the original inhabitants to live in their Western continent.
Meanwhile, to follow up Esty,
, you ship off all these criminals to some inaccessible place, then 200 years later they're back again, running all the bars and beating you at cricket! cough.....Aussies....cough (though we'll keep Kylie if that's OK
)