Who was the most foolish ruler of all?

[Raynor]

Originally Posted by alatar

Surely not as many as in Middle earth, but the land without stain surely had to be steam-cleaned more than a few times.

I am not sure that I follow, perhaps you can rephrase.

The best way to keep my kids out of something is to hide it in plain site.

Well, that can't work in Arda. Aman is common knowledge at least among the Eldar, who were in close contact with the numenoreans. The numenoreans themselves came into contact with the inhabitants of Aman during the war of wrath, and afterwards (with Eonwe) when they settled.

Manwe, to me, is passive.
...
It's notable that he sits on his throne.

The fading of the role of the valar is something gradual; before the ages of the trees or of the sun, there were ages uncounted. While the Silmarillion is not extremely explicit, previous version of HoME detail his role in actively fighting and defeating Melkor.

And note that Tulkas calls his brethren to fight Melkor as well.

True, but he represents violence (albeit the good of it, cf HoME X).