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Originally Posted by Mithalwen
Also bear in minds that Thingol was a mighty Elf Lord - one of the 3 Originals so to speak - to put it crudely the power of the elf lords seems to be diluted with each generation ( this is supported by the fact that elf parents put more of their own strength into their children and that consequently the larger families among them occured in the early years when they were at their peak). As a first generation descendant of an original elf lord, Luthien would be nigh on a par with Fingolfin and Feanor without the not inconsequential benefits of Melian as a mother.
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I don't know that Elf-power is diluted as the years go by. After all, it is pretty much apparent that Ingwe, Finwe, and Elwe were not Imin, Tata, and Enel because they could NOT have been First-Generation Elves. The Reason: Ingwe has a sibling (either Indis or her mother), and Elwe has at least two (Olwe and Elmo), as well as "kin" (Cirdan and Eol, according to some versions). Consequently, they cannot have been "first-generation", and thus your theory starts to totter.
Furthermore, the generation(s) of Elves that produced all of known big families were the generations living in the peace and bliss of the noontide of Valinor. It is stated by Tolkien that the Elves generally held off having children in times of danger or war. Note that while Finwe has four or five children, and over a dozen grandchildren (and a couple of great-grandchildren), his contemporary Elwe, who is living in the much more dangerous Middle-earth, has only one child. True, this could be partly a product of the fact that Elwe was married to a Maia, but his brother Elmo is also far behind Finwe in terms of progeny.
It is true that a previous generation of Elves would, by product of his/her longer life, have a greater store of knowledge than the next generation, but this is a result of a longer life than anything else. I would agree that at the end of the First Age, Gil-galad seems like a pretty timid little king compared with Fingolfin, Finrod, Turgon, Maedhros, etc., but at the Battle of the Last Alliance, he seems (in my eyes) to be every bit as great a king as Fingon in the Nirnaeth. Similarly, Elrond's wisdom at the end of the Third Age is reminiscent of Thingol's in the First.