Every day, our real world's lore becomes more and more grimdark. If you read it on any fantasy series, you'd think the plot is unbelievable and cheap.
Once monarchy was succesfully removed from europe, capitalism was unhindered to reach its natural state of monopoly. The families behind this "social" movements grew rich enough to literally buy the world in a couple of centuries.
Their crimes are enough to put any fictional villain to shame, starting with their satanic worship to baal and moloch; the kidnap, torture and sacrifice of children; but that encompasses the creation of wars, the killing and silencing every dissident voice, the rewritting of history, mind and social manipulation, artificial empoverishement of every possible competitor, overtaking all nations and world organizations to use them as puppets, everything aimed to maim humankind mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically. There is an eventual point in which we feel so tired and weak that we try to not think about them at all, and pretend that everything its allright. After all, it cant be so bad when the news dont mention them and we have the world cup, right?
I've noticed that its hard to make a serious setting featuring themes of good vs evil without making evil either an antisemitic analogy or, on the other hand, a cartoonish caricature of evil that is not even evil on its own setting (like koopa in super mario or something as shallow as that)
I think that the only viable third choice is to set games on settings in which evil/demons exist, but monarchies are still strong enough so demons are still relativelly weak and do not control kingdoms, or are still confined into evil zones. Sauron in the third age is already on the next stage, sending its influence beyond Mordor through spies and agents.
I do agree with your point that settings where good and evil matter need high contrast, because a world of grays ultimately confuses those who want to be good and provides justification for those who do evil. If good wins every time, it is cartoonish. If evil wins every time, we are in Dante's hell. A struggle in 'Middle' Earth, with clearly defined sides and people who stand between the two, able to make both good and bad choices, is the only way. Theoden and Denethor make a good contrasting pair in this case. However, the power of each side can definitely be imbalanced. The separatists are an insurgent minority in the prequels, and the Empire is an overpowering oppressor in the main trilogy. Moreover, there are many ways evil can manifest, not only in war, and the stakes of the conflict can be tied, in my opinion, to the measure and aims of That Hideous Strength.
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