Rather than answer your questions directly and personally,
Child of the 7th Age, I would like to think for a bit about why Tolkien did not send this most interesting letter.
Quote:
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From the above letter and the fact that it was not sent, we may conclude that Tolkien himself may have had split feelings in this regard.
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Another possibility is that Tolkien did not want to force an authorial imprimatur on this truth. He might have preferred it to be something which the reader would come to on his or her own.
I know of several authors who hesitate to say definitely what their intent is/ was, particularly those for whom the discovery is part of an ethical journey.
What makes me suspect that Tolkien is one of these writers who feel the path is there for those who would follow it, is his comments about allegory in the Foreward to the Second Edition of LOTR. He is against allegory because its meaning resides in "the purposed domination of the author" whereas "applicability" (a looser, more free kind of allusion) allows "the freedom of the reader."
Perhaps this takes your ideas in a direction you did not intend, though.
*lies back on the river bank, chewing a long piece of grass, thinking about how authors create their readers*
Bethberry