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It is a common device in films to combine two characters into one or combine two events into one to move things along and not repeat elements of the same scene twice. Do you object to doing that?
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I don't think this is something about which you can make general pronouncements. For example, you could combine the characters of Gethron and Grithnir from the
Narn i Hîn Húrin without doing much harm to the story, but combining Finduilas and Níenor would be catastrophic. I think that in general this is to be avoided unless two criteria are met: firstly that the two characters should be dramatically indistinguishable and secondly that combining them should save a significant amount of screen time. In general, I think that big-budget films tend to overdo this compression, in my opinion underestimating the intelligence and sophistication of their audience more often than not.
In the case of the story of Húrin's family a film-maker would have the advantage of a relatively small cast of strong, well-defined characters. The central family grouping of Húrin, Morwen Eledhwen, Túrin, Níenor and Lalaith, then a court group including Thingol and Saeros; the Outlaws, which essentially revolve around the central pairing of Túrin and Beleg, the last of the Petty-dwarves in the persons of Mîm and his sons, another court group at Nargothrond and the Brethil group, particularly Brandir and Dorlas. For antagonists you have Morgoth, Glaurung and Gothmog. Everyone else is essentially a supporting rôle.
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In TTT, Jackson had the Elves come to Helms Deep. Of course, this was a deviation from the book. One reason given was that Jackson did not have the time to show actual book-based battles that the Elven Warriors were engaged in so he "moved them" to the battle he was focusing on. Many viewers joined me in rating that innovation as a very positive one.
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I think that this is another instance where things can't be decided
en bloc. Each scene has to be considered on its individual merits, but this sort of thing has to be avoided if in any way possible. Jackson's scene takes me off into
LR film territory, which I don't like to discuss because of all the cans of worms it opens. I felt that scene, while it worked dramatically, raised serious questions about the narrative situation. The Rohirrim don't really trust Elves; they have no contact with any of the Eldar, and so the arrival of force from Lothlórien, which they regard as a place of sorcery, is very unlikely to be well-received in the fictional world as written. There's also the fact that the Elven battles aren't essential. The Elves are in decline and withdrawing from Middle-earth, so it's right that they shouldn't play much of a part in its battles. Tolkien relegated them to the Appendices for a reason: that aspect of the War of the Ring was tangential to the story he was telling. To use an analogy from a real-life war, it would be like putting Russian troops at Omaha Beach just because they were fighting the same enemy.
Anyway, that's another subject entirely. I don't usually talk about the
LR films, because my opinions aren't terribly popular. Perhaps the foregoing comments make it clear why I don't tend to watch films made from books I like.
[EDIT]: I agree entirely with Lalaith's comments about emotional incontinence in contemporary films.