I won't defend the quality of the Rings of Power—I think it's lacklustre at best—but the premiere did get 25 million people watching it. It seems doubtful a completely original series would have attracted so large an audience right off the bat.
And I don't think there's necessarily a problem deviating from the source material when adapting something. But you do need to make sure your new ideas are as good, or better, than the original. To me, the single biggest failure of Rings of Power is that those deviations have been so poorly executed. Bad plotting and bad writing abounds.
The benefit the movies had was just that they were executed very well. As you mention, so much of Rings of Power is just bad execution (or really odd pacing/writing choices).
The world can thank Jackson for doing a great trilogy that doesn't change the story that much and that is still a master piece.
Let's hope Amazon don't ruin the name.
Given the deal Amazon made (and that it's a one-off), can you name one reason they would be afraid of destroying the reputation of the lord of the rings universe? Doesn't damage them at all.
Besides, let's face it, most of the value in Middle Earth comes from the books. Yes the films brought in a lot of people for a short while, but even the films don't make the impressions the books made on many fans.
Sadly, it makes sense, especially to business MBA's that fear one thing above all else: risk (mostly risk for themselves personally, but entire boards of companies are known to make the same reasoning). This is exactly the behaviour you'll find all over any wall street firm, which is the environment Jeff Bezos "grew up in". And sorry to say, you have to admit: it can work pretty well.
I'd argue that the vocal internet-based fanboys are the minority, so while I truly can respect the integrity you'd prefer they take with the source material... I can also see why they would not worry about it and just make a show that they believe will be well liked by the more general audience.
In the end, I'm sure they'll do the same thing we software folk do when your audience has mixed feelings about your product - listen to all sides and then choose who they want to make happy and react accordingly.
Actually, LotR the book has been a major influence in American pop culture since the 1960s. The debate here seems to be whether RoP is faithful to Tolkien's vision, not Jackson's vision. Not criticizing, just trying to keep the original point in focus.
No. RoP isn't faithful to either visions, as Jackson's vision wasn't exceptionally far from Tolkein's vision. The differences come from the reality of the medium.
Possibly true for the LoTR movies, decidedly less so for the Hobbit movies.