>>52284414
ok I'm going to make 2 lists to reinforce my point (which is not exactly negated by the independent points made by other posters, they are complementary and show that the imitation of Tolkein borrows some details but not essence)
DnD: Elves have their own language, live much longer than humans, have better senses including more sensitive vision, are xenophobic and racist, and dislike/rival dwarves. Dwarves adopt the particular Tolkein size of a short human (in older fantasy, they were often much smaller or varied in size), halflings which are loosely based on hobbits didn't exist at all before Tolkein, and Orcs are large grubby assholes who are warlike and often low intelligence (this adaptation is not necessarily Tolkein-esque, Uruk-Hai leaders were cunning but not all orcs).
These similarities all show that the demographic information from Tolkein is heavily borrowed in DnD (and other fantasy settings, but this post is already going to be long as fuck)
However at it's core LOTR and The Hobbit is about how very average normal (and even small, below average strength) people can, through heroic effort, accomplish epic feats that shape the fate of nations and the world.
This spirit of overcoming the impossible, of boring homebody people going on a magical hero's journey against all odds, is less often imitated and even fewer effectively so.
I'd say some good examples are A Wrinkle In Time, Chronicles of Narnia, and the Xanth series of books.
A story like Harry Potter, where everyone already knows the main character is magical and instantly amazing at everything they do, is both more worthy of criticism for being mary-sue and less Tolkein-y in spirit. Same for the story of the heavily muscled badass that noone is surprised when they beat the pulp out of their enemies (Battlefield: Earth, Conan the Barbarian, Drizzt from the Forgotten Realms setting).
tl;dr most Tolkein imitators copy the minutiae of Tokein's world, and miss the essence of the story