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Lets see if I get this right. UA was suppose to look into the future and know that JRRT would someday publish a book that he had been working on for decades and decades and was in little better condition that stacks of unsorted papers and notes? They were suppose to know, that somehow, someway, someday, JRRT or his heirs would undercut their investment by putting out another book with much the same material that they had paid him for? Or, they should have been aware of a rather obscure article turned into a book about the subject and been able to predict the future from that?
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" in little better condition that stacks of unsorted papers and notes" could describe the manuscripts of many authors pre-word-processors. And how many studios have bought the movie rights of forthcoming books? And even if we were to sympathise with that well-known humanitarian organisation United Artists because they didn't get around to asking Tolkien whether he was going to actually publish this 'Silmarillion' thing (probably the board of directors was too busy going out on the streets & handing out soup & sandwiches to the homeless or something), Saul Zaentz could have easily found out (it being, as WCH has pointed out, widely known throughout the '60's he was working on it) if he'd taken the time - Tolkien never made any secret of his desire to publish it. To continue his example - you purchase one acre of land from him but fail to ask what plans, if any, he has for the rest of it. He has actually published out his plans to turn the rest of the land into a 'hog-farm/sewage treatment plant/toxic waste dump' - in fact, on the one acre of land (LotR) you bought there was actually a big sign stating 'This land to over look a new hog-farm/sewage treatment plant/toxic waste dump' (the clear statement/wide knowledge that The Sil was a work in progress). You, in your eagerness to buy the acre of land, simply ignore the sign & also fail to ask what plans the owner has for the rest of the site.
The other point I would make is that Zaentz has never cared whether his licensing of trashy cartoons, action figures & general tat might adversely affect the reputation/perception of the Estate's property (ie Tolkien's writings). Do you think that in return for access to use some of Tolkien's unpublished work Zaentz would let the Estate have a say in what was licensed - or would this all be one way traffic?