I owned both, still have SM, LOTR is gone, but wouldn't mind having it back. When I had to get rid of a game from my collection it was going to be one or the other because both have relatively long ball times, meaning you have to be ready for a long game to step up to either game, LOTR more so. In other words I'd hesitate to recommend having both at the same time in a small collection, even though both are great games.

My first reaction is that LOTR "games feel the same" to me too, but YMMV.

Whenever I play a pin with most modes requireing "hit x target/ramp y times to complete", it makes me cringe how un-creative it is compared to LOTR. It is partially why I'm fond of XM as many of the rules remind me of LOTR.

With LOTR I can simply shotgun the playfield, and I'll have ring modes and multiballs starting one after the other, eventually after all 3 multiballs have been started, and I get to DTR. On the other hand Valinor does require mode completions.

On SM I can get to Battle Royale by starting modes and not completing them just like DTR, but Super Hero wizard mode does require mode completions, like Valinor... but I may be wrong on the need to complete everything before reaching SH mode, so it's Valinor likely has stricter prereqs.

For most players wizard mode prereqs don't matter

I noticed this in competitions as well because it is the safest/quickest route to multiball. Normally games are played differently in tournament mode vs at home where progress to wizard mode is the goal, so for home use this is less of a concern. It would be nice for Lyman to balance that out at some point.

Agreed, SM was made in the dark ages of Stern DMD animations when they simply ripped video from the movies rather than custom dots which I'm thankful they finally returned to in 2012. SM/IM would be vastly improved with ColorDMD, but for some reason they did LOTR which is the very last Stern title I would have done.... it's almost too much color, like putting in chicklet/rainbow LEDs all over the LOTR playfield... it's just not that type of game.