The "if's" of the three Elven-Rings

[Formendacil]

Even though Sauron never touched the Three, and even if you could hold him COMPLETELY innocent of their making (which you can't, since he seems to have instigated the whole Ring-making process in Eregion), the Rings, up to and including the Three, are of their very nature, by what they are designed to do, wrong.

The Three Rings, like all the Rings, were created, as far as the Elves were concerned, with the intention of "preserving" middle-earth. In other words, they were trying to hold back the tide of time, and keep things as it was. As it was at that point was with the Elves as the dominant species and the major overlords. The Elves were trying to stop their Fading, and the impending Dominion of Men, which they knew must eventually come.

The time would have come eventually for the Dominion of Men. The Music of the Ainur directed that it must come eventually, and it would seem likely as well that the Elves would eventually realize what a selfish and sinful thing they were trying to do in holding back time. As well as impossible. You can hold back time for a while, but I don't think that even the Rings would have kept the Elves in middle-earth forever. All that the Rings were doing was making it worse, because they were able to remain in middle-earth in a nearer-perfect state for much longer, hence (being Elves) they were able to become more attached to their lands, and thus when the time came to depart, much more torn about having to leave.