I loved it too.  Those Rivendell scenes while not in the proper novel are in one of the appendices.  I think it does a nice job fleshing out why Gandalf gets involved with these guys in the first place, which always puzzled me when I first read it many years ago.

I loved the film.

Then there's the resolution.  The image resolution has been increased far beyond current HDTV standards.  The images in The Hobbit  will have 4 - 5 times more pixels than a standard 1080p HD image.  So the image will be immensely sharper, too.

Even most digital presentations far exceed 1080P, and film stock definitely does.  48FPS is not about the resolution of the frames, but the number of them.  The 24FPS version will have the same resolution, just fewer frames.  The 4K is completely independent of the 48FPS.  Most BluRay discs masters are 4K transfers downgraded to 1080P.

That said, I agree with all your points.

For clarity's sake, existing film stock for the past forever still contains more image "data" than HD or even the new 4K process.  This 48FPS does not contain more "resolution" than a 24FPS presentation does, just twice as many frames per second.

In fairness though, the OTC one was pretty spectacular too.

Fox does own the distribution rights for the first film, so it could throw some drama into the reality of this happening. They don't own anything else about the films except that, but it is sort of a big deal.  This is more like WalMart buying the EXCLUSIVE distribution rights to a product, and then the manufacturer trying to sell it at another distributor.  The manufacturer would have to wait for those rights to expire (which they won't here; Fox owns them in perpetuity) or the manufacturer and the distributors would have to hammer out an agreement.

Maybe the training isn't so much about the powers themselves, but more about developing the maturity not to use superhuman powers for personal gain.  When Yoda and Ben are training Luke, their backs are against the wall.  They have to pray (to the midichlorians) that Luke's character is firmly developed enough to resist the temptation of using his powers for gain, that he's a good person.

Carol did not die on screen.

Now that you are caught up, you are in the same boat as the rest of us; hopelessly addicted having trouble waiting for our next fix.

I didn't loathe the first one, and this new one looked decent.  I really liked Renegades.