I believe
WCH's point in bringing up Numenor (and please correct me if this is wrong) was to point out there were consequences to becoming too expansionist as well. Because if Elves were generally isolationist, I would say the Numenoreans (and their descendants, the Gondorians) were globalists. They sought to expand their influence and bring 'enlightenment' to Lesser Men. I'm thinking about Faramir's comments:
Quote:
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"Yet now if the Rohirrim are grown in some ways more like to us, enhanced in arts and gentleness, we too have become more like to them, and can scarce claim any longer the title High. We are become Middle Men, of the Twilight, but with memory of other things. ~The Window on the West
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Faramir talks about the southern kingdom didn't care as much about mixing bloodlines, as Faramir puts it they have become "Middle Men" because of their mingling with the Rohirrim and Harad and Umbar when Gondor was at its height of expansion.
If I'm recalling correctly, the Dunedain did not mix their bloodlines, they did not mix with say the Men of Bree, as an example.
So there would appear to be consequences for being expansionists, as well. Perhaps Tolkien was cautioning about being on the extremes of either end?