I'd rate Volos and MToF lore as "decent, but not great". I want setting-specific, varied lore. Not "well, multiverse..." crap. But yeah, then they decided that it wasn't vague enough[1] for them, so they ditched it.
Yeah. And between LotR and D&D there was a veritable explosion of other fantasy, some of which took cues from LotR but went in very different directions. And then D&D in every edition has applied the mutant-making cannon to all of its influences. Basically, D&D does D&D, nothing else.Quite true.
LotR is interesting for the history of fantasy, but that history includes going through massive changes before it even gets to reach the "and this was D&D" stage.
[1] consciously avoiding any culture war topics here.