Is The Children of Hurin better than the Lord of the Rings?

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Tolkien, I think it is fairly clear, intended the Three (or Four) Great Tales* to exist in both long, detailed forms as independent works, as well as in compressed versions within the Silmarillion proper (compare "Of the Rings and the Third Age" with TLOTR). Unfortunately, the forward progress of the Quenta Silmarillion narrative halted with Beren and Luthien, and so nothing of the 'short' versions of the later Tales was ever done in that tradition, although Turin was covered in the Grey Annals (from which most of the chapter in the published Sil derives).

It appears, as close as CT can estimate, that the Narn/CoH wasn't all written at one time, and that moreover the end of the story (Turin in Brethil) was written first.

*Beren, Turin and Tuor plus Earendil (never written at all).

[Galadriel55]

To me, it doesn't really make a difference what order and in what format JRRT wanted to write / wrote the books in. I'm not so concerned with the process of their creation as I am with the final product. So I can't really see how JRRT's plans or CJRT's editing really have an effect on your take on the books. It's the final product that matters at the end of the day, not the way it got there.