What an opener Hookbill!
Firstly I think fantasy has been much more restricted post-Tolkien. Authors try to emulate him in either style or scope. Publishers hope to get writers to emulate him in content (not another ruddy elf!). Readers just want more product (but mostly leave unsatisfied as Big Macs cannot beat Roast Beef dinners, no?).
Before Tolkien nobody was trying to emulate him! And after Tolkien it takes a brave writer to reject Tolkien - note the ire with which Pullman meets from Tolkienistas, yet he's entitled to say what he says and in some ways is right, as writers
are inevitably compared to Tolkien and I do think that this is both unfair and unproductive! Upping the ante may be the only way to escape the chains of Middle-earth
I always say that a fantasy writer should emulate nobody - the whole premise of fantasy and sci-fi and all speculative fiction is that it represents the wildest imaginings of the human mind so why copy an existing writer? That's in some ways behind my dislike of people investing too much time in fan-fic as I feel quite frustrated that some clearly brilliant writers are wasting talents when they could be writing
new books about new worlds to go on the shelves for
me to read and enjoy!
So in some ways, Tolkien's influence has spoiled the genre because of the imitators, good and bad, but he has also inspired many to go out there and write totally original work, either through love or dislike. Pullman mentions him, so does Gaiman, so does Clarke, and so does Rowlings. His name is plastered over the blurb on the back of any 'epic' tale - even on Jean M Auel novels which are nothing at all like Tolkien apart from in length.
Tolkien in many ways helped to modernise fantasy and epic fiction (I'd rank Mervyn Peake alongside him for this effort) - he may have used ancient archetypes like wizards, goblins and dragons, and he may have utilised the style of the sagas in the Sil and in Return of the King, but he was not an antiquarian. His stories have incredibly modern themes - war, environmental destruction, examinations of master/servant relationships, totalitarianism, the place of women, addiction, mental illness, crumbling empires, devastating technology and weaponry etc...Where so much 'modern' fantasy falls down is that it is hoodwinked by the wizards, hobbits and elves and looks to the past for its themes - Tolkien did not do this, he was relevant to his readers' lives. Maybe that's why he is good and others are....not?