Is Middle Earth worth fighting for? It seems empty and abandoned to me

[Dark Lord Sauron]

As we all know, Middle Earth has been constantly plagued by warfare, throughout its entire history. But by the time the Dark Lord begins to rise again, is it REALLY worth fighting for? For all intents and purposes, this is the only section of Midddle Earth worth examining, as this is where LOTR takes place:

http://lotrmaps.middle-earth.us/maps/r3t_M48.gif
http://lotrmaps.middle-earth.us/maps/r3t_M24.gif

(Notes: the second map is the better map; I only chose the first one also because it lets you see the former Kingdom of Arnor. Both maps are from 2000 years before LOTR, so Gondor is much bigger).

Now lets see:

The North: Arnor. This kingdom was overrun by Sauron's forces, but by the time they had gotten there there wasn't much to overrun. Somehow the kingdom had fallen into a state of anarchy, and the kingdom just disappeared. Afterwards, even into LOTR, this place was leaderless. Settlements like Bree were some of the last vestiges of civilization up there.

Moria: overrun by the Goblins.

Isengard: Turned into a fortress for Sauron.

Gondor: The maps above show Gondor at the height of its power. At the beginning of LOTR it was but a shadow of this. The Nazgul had taken over Minas Morgul and were knocking on the doors of Minas Tirith. Umbar, showed at the bottom of the map, was taken by the Harad. Dunland and Enedwaith had fallen out of the borders (to the West), as well as Dagorlad (the northeast).

Calenardhon: Rohan?

Amon Sul: ruins.

Imladris: I assume this is where Elrond lives. This is the last place in Middle Earth where you will see Elves, once the mightiest of races, besides Lorien.

Lorien: OK, so you may not be able to take the place using Orcs. However, put one Balrog there, and the place would be burning in ten minutes (Balrogs used to be Maiar, like Sauron).

In fact, both maps have many small kingdoms. There are, however, two regions that are huge in comparison: the Harad and the Rhun. Both are ruled by uncivilized men, and both are allied with Sauron. If we were to show the ENTIRE Middle Earth, in fact, these two peoples would dominate the realms of the "civilized."

And just how mighty are the civilized? In the movies, the only places where you see ANYONE, outside the Shire, is in the places mentioned above. When they are travelling between the Amon Sul and Elrond's house, for example, you see NOTHING. No other people, no other towns, nothing (except maybe Sauron's armies). Think for a minute. As they were going throughout Middle Earth in the first LOTR movie, you saw a lot of ruins. Most of the place, in fact was ruins. Only a few scattered places here and there, plus the realm of the Dark Lord. Middle Earth looks like it was mostly abandoned, with only a scattered people here and there.

In fact, this is not far from the truth. In the Simarillion, there once were hundreds of thousands of Elves. However, in fighting Morgoth and Sauron, many thousands were mutated into Orcs and Goblins, and many others settled into the West. Remember how the land in which the Simarillion takes place (I believe it was called Bereliand), was utterly destroyed, and sunk? If so, many of the Gray Elves must have been also killed. How Elrond and Galadriel managed to escape from there before the entire land region went down under escapes me. So the Elves, once the mightiest of peoples, have mostly abandoned Middle Earth. After LOTR, there is not one Elf left on the continent.

Who did they leave the land to? The Dwarves seemed to start out as a small race, mostly ruined from fighting Morgoth. Moria, one of their main homes was destroyed. (Another question: the Goblins there seemed to be living there, not like an army of Sauron. Can we conclude that this once was an army, but utterly fell into a state of anarchy, therefore becoming a microcosm of Middle Earth?) The Men you saw in the first LOTR movie, those were good examples of Men (keep in mind the fact of the Men at Bree, remaints of Arnor. These people seem to be degenerating back toward the uncivilized ways of the Harad and Rhun). Without a doubt, the vast majority of Men are uncivilized and allied to the Dark Lord. And the Hobbits are a very small minority. Without a doubt, the majority of that section of Middle Earth is covered with Orcs, and the rest by uncivilized Man.

So, in conclusion, I believe that in the end, even though the Dark Lord was indeed defeated, this only saved the last vestiges of civilization on Middle Earth. That does not mean civilization will flourish. The vast majority of Middle Earth is still run by Orcs and uncivilized Man, and it seems like Darkness still rules the continent.