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I will have to say I STRONGLY disagree Aiwendil. In fact, I think it will be found that the changes necessitated by the dating scheme are not, in fact, as difficult to implement and as requiring of changes to the manuscript as might be thought. To respond to your points individually:
1.
a) The scientific accuracy afforded by an Older Arda is not required to be grouped into the same change as the idea of an ancient Sun and Moon, and I am unsure why you have done so. Plenty of changes and materials which were made concurrent with this central decision on Tolkien's part have been taken up into the drafts we have agreed on, such as Cuivienyarna and others, and we have simply edited them as needed to remove those parts that suggest an ancient Sun and Moon.
b) Why is that exactly? Removing the Sun from the equation only makes the 144 year-long Valian year easier to explain, as the length of time of the Trees' cycles can be any length without worrying about meshing that with Sun cycles.
2. I am also unsure how this can be seen. The text itself often requires little to no actual changes, since Tolkien kept most of the actual dates the same, the only difference is the length of actual time implied by those dates. As we give no indication of either of those things in the narrative, no real changes are required.
3. Fluidity has never been a concern of the rules of the project before to my knowledge. Is it not the case that the latest of Tolkien's writings and decisions is to be prioritized, unless unworkable? As to the idea of 'cycles' he lays out this idea in one of the Time and Aging materials, and it actually correlates quite well with what was said in earlier versions, with the added tidbit of 'renewal' occurring with each stage of life entered. I have at this time already made a draft of a singular Time and Aging work combining much of the material laid out by Tolkien, and forming such a draft was far less difficult than might be thought.
4. As explained above, the 'cycles of renewal' is not a rejection of the earlier material but an expansion on it. The Cycles he lays out map exactly onto the previously elaborated life stages in his schema, with the new addition of a physical 'renewal' upon entering each new stage of life, slowly dwindling in efficacy and longevity until Fading.
In summary, the only changes that seem 'unworkable' are those which relate directly to the Ancient Sun and Moon, which we have already agreed to reject, such as Men awaking much earlier. The rest are very easily workable into our texts, and I think we have a mandate to do so by the rules of the project.
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