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Just to go back to Feanorsdoom's point about the 'Silmarils being found one day'. I take it this is referring to the potential for some other writer to tell that story.
Yes, someone could indeed write that story - in fact I would be very surprised if someone hadn't already done so - there's so much fanfic around I suspect that every possible idea has been explored & written up by somebody.
However, what seems to be being suggested is an 'officially' sanctioned work by another author, published under the auspices pf the Tolkien Estate & that would stand on equal terms with LotR & TH, or at least with The '77 Sil & CoH. Now that I simply cannot see ever being accepted by most fans or students of Tolkien. It would be no more than published fanfic & be held in no higher authority than any other such work.
There can be (& probably will be shen copyright runs out - though I note that recent editions of Tolkien's work are copyright The Tolkien Trust, not JRR Tolkien) new M-e stories. But there will never be another writer who can say with perfect truth (as Tolkien did) that 'the Silmarils are in my heart'. The absolute best you could hope for would be a good fantasy novel (or more probably fantasy series). But it wouldn't be Tolkien. It would be a second hand vision. Even the style would either have to be fake Tolkien or the writer's own - in which case it would feel false.
To me this desire is more like the desire of someone who sees the Mona Lisa & becomes fascinated with the landscape background & wants another artist to paint other pictures showing more of the landscape to left & right. Apart from the fact that all you would end up with is a couple of landscape paintings with a vague connection to the original painting, the person wanting those paintings would have completely missed the point of the original....
Let's imagine a writer authorised to write a continuation - the first thing he or she is going to do is hit the solid brick wall of 'Myths Transformed' - does he or she ignore or incorporate those changes? Of course, that's just the first & most obvious example. The Legendarium is not a coherent, self consistent tale with a few gaps to fill, which any half decent writer can come along & fill in. It was a constantly evolving work, changing over Tolkien's long life, with far more internal conflicts & inconsistencies than many fans are willing to admit.
Sorry, you can analyse the writings, you can analyse the writer, but what you can't do is just write 'gap fillers' or continuations - anyone who thinks you can simply doesn't understand what Tolkien produced & the nature of teh materials he left.
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