Tried skimming this thread but couldn't find anything, so..
Its been mentioned on a couple of sites I've recently skimmed that the star Sam saw was actually Earendel.
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There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.
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This is incredibly significant. Sam looks up & sees the light of the Silmaril. & it brings him hope. Earendel is always a sign of hope, but it is almost like the thought that 'pierced him' comes directly from Earendel himself. Could this possibly be a case of Sanwe? Certainly the implication is that Earendel is involved in the Quest, if only from a distance. Now, in Shelob's Lair Frodo invokes Earendel:
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Frodo gazed in wonder at this marvellous gift that he had so long carried, not guessing its full worth and potency. Seldom had he remembered it on the road, until they came to Morgul Vale, and never had he used it for fear of its revealing light. Aiya Earendil Elenion Ancalima! he cried, and knew not what he had spoken; for it seemed that another voice spoke through his, clear, untroubled by the foul air of the pit.
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Slowly his hand went to his bosom, and slowly he held aloft the Phial of Galadriel. For a moment it glimmered, faint as a rising star struggling in heavy earthward mists, and then as its power waxed, and hope grew in Frodo's mind, it began to burn, and kindled to a silver flame, a minute heart of dazzling light, as though Earendil had himself come down from the high sunset paths with the last Silmaril upon his brow.
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It seems that from that moment Earendel is an active presence in the Quest, & the light (& hope) of the Silmaril is with them. So, its not a 'general' hope that Sam experiences, but a very specific one. The 'light & high beauty' is not a vague reference to 'spiritual' things, but a very specific reference to Earendel & the Silmaril. Sauron may be victorious in the battle for all Sam knows, but he will never possess the Silmaril - the ultimate symbol of beauty, perfection & hope for Men will always remain.