What was it all for?

[Aiwendil]

Davem, it seems to me that you are changing the question in mid-argument. Perhaps I simply misunderstood your earlier posts on this thread. But you said:

Tolkien spent 60 years doing something, & he must have had a reason for devoting such time & energy to it. He wasn't just using 'sources', he was using them for something.

And:

Just attempting to understand why he did what he did.

Now you say:

When I ask what was it all for I'm attempting to focus on where he ended up, rather than where he started.

I think it's clear that there are two distinct questions here, but I don't think it's at all clear which you intended to discuss in this thread. Which are we discussing:

1. Why Tolkien wrote - i.e. what his intention was
or
2. What the result was (related to the issue of what value the work has)?