[pandora]

But in the hands of Sauron (or potentially Gandalf or Galadriel) its power to raise armies and bend minds need not be at all subtle. To ascribe Sauron's effect on the Númenóreans to the Ring is to say that they became puppets on the strings that he pulled.

But that's not the issue. The question is whether Sauron without the Ring would have been strong enough to do it. This isn't a positive case of using the Ring to dominate but avoiding the negative effect on Sauron of not bringing it with him. Without it he may well have found it too difficult to disguise his real motives from even those already disatisfied with their lives.

Overtly using the Ring in a realm so much nearer, physically and spiritually, to the Valor might well have seemed too dangerous to Sauron at least until near the end when he took to defying the lightning.

There's just no reason to think that he did not take the Ring, just as there's no reason to assume that he specifically used it directly on the Numenoreans as a weapon of some sort.

to blame the One Ring for the Númenóreans contradicts the entire rationale behind the Akallabêth,

Which has no direct bearing on whether it was there or not.

Cheap analogy time: The Ring was part of Sauron, not a truly separate thing. If the question was "did Sauron take his left arm with him?" then the answer is an obvious "yes" without implying that he punched anyone while he was there. Why would he not take it, any more than he would not take his arm? No one on Numenor was going to take it off him, that's for sure!