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For my money, an interesting thing to see in a research paper on this topic is how, perhaps, the movie attempts to address the thematic and conclusive aspect of the Scouring without showing it. I mean, they cut the scouring from the narrative but did they entirely remove that sense of having returned to a changed home?
I've not watched the film with an eye to looking for this, but as I recall the cinematography of that final sequence 'back home' lacked some of the gusto and visual excitement of the introdoction: the music was certainly more subdued and the characterisation was absolutely different (the isolation of the returned hobbits, for example; the more dramatic tone of their performance as compared to the comedy of the beginning). All of this sets a tone that presents the Shire itself as being somehow more 'grown up' than it was during Bilbo's party. It mighy be interesting to follow that thread of an idea -- a visual comparison of the Shire from the beginning to the end: there are probably more children and childish antics in the first view of it than there are at the end. And I suspect (I think I saw it this way) there were subtle seasonal overtones to the lighting and set design which present the Shire as having moved from a high summer of prosperity (in the first film) to a more autumnal and even wintry conclusion.
To that extent it is perhaps possible to see how the film keeps the 'spirit' of the Scouring alive even as they removed the episode itself...
Just a quick thought.
(But wargs still don't look like lemmings, and Balrogs do have wings.)
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Scribbling scrabbling.
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