I'd just have to say: yes, for many years it has frustrated me that i have found few fantasy writings that are not in some way... let's just say, to be pollitically correct, INSPIRED (cough cough) by Tolkien's works or ideas. Characters, plot schemes, races, etc. all seem to have been 'adapted'.
This is not to say that everyone steals ideas
... there are some fantastic fantasy works out there that are very disssimilar to the works of Tolkien... they are rare and hard to find. Those cheapy fantasy paperbacks for example are often just straight copies, yet many authors (MaCathery, Lustbader, Pratchett, etc etc) can still come up with vibrant original works.
It's sad, but hey! Tolkien's ideas are all so awesome, it's hard not to write with some of them, it's kind of what we expect fantasy to be nowadays.