He'll print off a hundred copies of Black Lotus just for himself to sign and sell at 3* the price of an original and the Elon Stans will buy it up within a day.
Yeah, this is the core of it. LOTR was basically fine on its own, but part of a trend that now brought us marvel set(s?) and now 1/2 of new sets will be outside IP.
Every expansion that is based on an IP like lord of the rings in another expansion that doesn't build on the lore of magic the gathering. Wizards of the coast are also starting to do more crossovers in the future, which again makes the problem worse.
Its a case of the company prioritizing short term profit from a IP linked set over the long term experience of the player base.
Lord of the Rings and the Forgotten Realms are fine, they take up a set that could be a new plane or an expansion of an existing one but at least it's thematic sword fantasy. But add to that, Fallout, Warhammer 40k, Doctor Who, Transformers and some I probably forgot, it starts to be a bit much (most of those are Commander only I think, but still...)
If that was all restricted to Secret Lairs, low volume, collector bonuses, it wouldn't be a big deal, but no, you need to have Optimus Prime fighting a Hive Tyrant