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I'm not sure if the section of letter quoted above is evidence to say that Tolkien thought of The Hobbit as not being a part of the Legendarium, though I've never read the full letter and there might be more hints. The Hobbit might not have been a large, massive part of the full legendarium, but I don't see why it would be as unrelated to the Silmarilion and Lord of the Rings as Roverandum, or any of his other stories. From Sam and Frodo's chat about stories before they descended into Mordor (among other places), we can see how deeply important Tolkien felt continuing tales are. The Hobbit was a link within the larger story of Lord of the Rings (if we take the first of the wars of the ring as part of that story). Most likely Tolkien, charactaristically, was unhappy that he had not made everything fit together perfectly. Also, since he began to write it seemed as if Tolkien was constantly changing aspects of his stories, and the only reason he couldn't have gone back and tweek The Hobbit (or rewrite it all together) was that it was actually published. Who knows how many times he smoothed things over in his head, or on paper, but who knows how much he did the same for Lord of the Rings.
So, what I mean is that while The Hobbit is a children's story, and possibly just a "foot-in-the-door" for Tolkien's other writing, I can definitely see it being part of the Legendarium, at least as it's published now. Maybe Tolkien had something else in mind, but what he's given us is a step the Ring took before it ended up with Frodo.
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