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Of course, Eru is at first the dominant figure in the story. He is 'replaced' by the Valar, who themselves subsequently fade in to the background. In the end the gods follow their father & are left behind. That is both tragedy & liberation for the peoples of Middle-earth.
Eru is 'necessary', in that things must have a source, but he is a pretty boring source & not much to write home about. Hence one can project all kinds of things onto him in terms of values & motives which are not present in the text.
The Valar are a much more interesting bunch altogether, their motives (& flaws) make them more real, (& more importantly more necessary from a literary pov). 'Perfect' is not interesting. In fact it seems from a reading of this thread that the only way Eru becomes interesting is when people start attributing things to him which call his perfection into question. Come to that Melkor is by far the most interesting of the Ainur because of his flaws. I suspect that this is another reason Eru is left in the background until something spectacular is needed (bit like Superman is only interesting when the Kryptonite is brought out - when he's at full strength he can do anything & there's no drama).
So, very boring character, & the reason I think he's best left out. The Valar are interesting because they're flawed, make mistakes & produce drama. Yet they themselves are too powerful when the story turns to focus on individual people in Middle-earth & have to be removed to the background.
The reason the Akallabeth seems like an 'attrocity' is that what happens is essentially unfair because Eru is too powerful & its not a fair fight. He shouldn't have done what he did. The Numenoreans basically didn't want to die (who does?) & that's what drove them. If the Fall of Numenor had been a natural disaster it would have been awe-inspiring & humbling - man brought down by impersonal nature. As it is an overwhelmingly powerful being obliterates them with malice aforethought & in the end it seems vindictive because for all their 'power' they are weak mortals with no chance. One cannot rationalise the behaviour of Eru & make it equal 'good'. Once more we come back to Eru as a two dimensional 'Old Nobodaddy'.
Man facing the Dragon is moving & speaks to a deep part of our souls. Man trying to tiptoe around an angry Eru & avoid being smited is ultimately pathetic. So, for me the character of Eru doesn't work, & is the classic example of a deus ex machina which shatters the drama & undermines the tragedy.
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