Elves visiting Numenor.

[Zigûr]

We know that the High Elves who lingered in Middle-earth in the Second Age "wanted the peace and bliss and perfect memory of 'The West', and yet to remain on the ordinary earth where their prestige as the highest people... was greater than at the bottom of the hierarchy of Valinor." (Letter 131) Sauron encouraged the Elves to "make a separate independent paradise" in Middle-earth; "Gilgalad repulsed all such overtures, as also did Elrond" as well as Galadriel, but Celebrimbor was enthused.

Seemingly the leaders of the Elves were uninterested in the active development of Western Middle-earth into a 'paradise' (besides Celebrimbor) but still had an interest in their positions of eminence as well as resisting the ongoing evil in the world. So perhaps it could be suggested that on the one hand defending Middle-earth in the ongoing struggle against Morgoth's legacy was one concern, but there was another. Númenor was a gift of the Valar to Men. It had certain qualities which engendered the reluctance of those High Elves who lingered in Middle-earth, being founded and enriched by those who still lived or had returned to the place they were still unwilling to remove themselves to. It might, then, have had certain connotations which they were trying to avoid.