A lot of folks that read the series late after having read other fantasy works seem to forget that Tolkien was writing in a different convention to what we are most familiar with these days. And in that same ilk, he was also writing to a much different and much broader audience. Fantasy writers today know their readership, and understand well that they can be subjective, snobby and somewhat stubborn when it comes to their genre; most of them simply write to this audience, and abide their readers by presenting them with the normal fantasy archetypes, unlike Tolkien who was writing a piece of literature for the world to read. In that respect Tolkien's style can come off as simple or minimalist by today's standards, but in itself there lays the genius. He never said to himself, “I’m going to write a fantasy novel” He said to himself he was going to write a story for people to read. There is a definable difference in that mentality.
My personal opinion is that it is rather unjust to weigh his work by our current standards, that and considering our tastes differ greatly from one another and as a whole from society as it was during the time of the Lord of the Rings' initial publication, it seems a rather unfair comparison.
I for one could care less whether he stacks up in literary prowess against anyone around today (or not, R.I.P. Gemmell), his stories are what matter and they are magical and worthy of praise. Any good story should be about the story, the prose should be adequate to deliver that story, but the story is what counts.