It's those Mirkwood Elves, they are so dumb and silly compared to other elves, I think it a combination of inferior genes and not ever having someone to look up to until the Second Age.
The best answer to this question however is who wrote the books. The Hobbit and LotR were written by Bilbo and Frodo, respectively. Bilbo didn't know any elves very well before his journey and he was with Dwarves, so Bilbo could have been biased in his writings. Frodo however was much more aware of elves and his view of them is apparent in his part of the story. Also at the time of LotR the elves knew their time was limited in Middle-Earth, and in the Hobbit they thought they still had some time.
As for Elrond being an Elf-friend, he is only a half-elf.
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