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Of course, one has always to keep in mind that he didn't have to make the film at all, & that having freely chosen to make it he was never, ever, ever, ever ever going to escape criticism from some lovers of the books because THIS IS TOLKIEN.
Tolkien's work, for whatever reason, inspires a deep & abiding love in the hearts of many of those who read it. It changes their lives & makes them different people. When someone comes along & starts playing around with it, changing it - however good their reasons - they will bring down on themselves the 'righteous ire' of those fans.
You have to keep in mind that LotR is not simply another book as far as many readers are concerned, & lovers of the book feel a deep attachment to it. LotR is a pretty unique case among works of fiction - how many novels from the mid fifties are still so popular that they are still published, & sell massively, in hardback? Harper Collins in the UK must have a half dozen different hardback editions in print & as many in paperback - teverything from cheap mass market paperbacks at one extreme to expensive slip-cased deluxe editions at the other. And this is not down to the movies - it has pretty much always been the case that both standard & deluxe hardbacks of LotR have been available.
And we need to put aside this 'the movies are not the books' thing once & for all. The producers have gone out of their way to tie the movies in with the books - the SEE versions come in cases designed to look like books, & the on-screen menus are designed to look like books (even down to using the term 'Appendices' rather than the usual 'Extras' on the 'pages'). DVD 'chapter titles' are in most cases taken from the chapter names in the book. Jackson & the producers have gone out of their way to tie the movies in with the books - to the extent of employing two of the best loved Tolkien book illustrators as production designers. Jackson didn't have to do any of that.
Put simply - no-one is more 'guilty' of attempting to tie the movies directly into the books than Jackson himself. If he then finds himself criticised for not being faithful to the books I don't think he's really got grounds for complaint. If he hadn't wanted his movies to be judged by the books he could have done a great deal more to distance the two. Try listening to the commentary tracks & counting how many times Jackson, et al, talk about 'being faithful to the book'.
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