The surface trappings of D&D were lifted from Tolkein, but I do agree that the 'meat' of the game has always been very different. In a way, D&D has actually become more Tolkein-esque over time as it evolved from a loot-and-murder, episodic dungeon crawl-centric game into the sprawling save-the-world heroic fantasy adventures that are a dime a dozen these days.