I think you missed some of my post.
My 10 year old daughter *did* love the Hobbit. She'e enjoying the LotR, which we just started. She just likes HP more, because she can 'relate' to Hermione. She thinks Hermione is the greatest character she's ever read.
It's really a personal preference thing. She's not a hard-core 'fantasy' person, like I am, she tends to like stories about human relationships best.
I think you're simply mis-understanding.
My 4 year old son just won't sit still longer than about 20 minutes. I read to him most nights, but Dr. Suess and 'Berenstein Bears'. He loves it, but he's one of those little boys who just hits the ground running about 6 a.m. and doesn't slow down until you tie him down to a bed that night. He doesn't have the patience to stick with a longer book yet.
But he'll love the LotR when he gets a little older, I'm certain. He's just like I was, in love with swords and warriors and wizards and all that. He just wants to *play* warriors, not read about warriors!
When we were reading the Hobbit, he was half-listening during the part where the Trolls capture Bilbo and the Dwarves, and he immediately jumped up and 'attacked' me with his toy sword, calling out 'die evil troll'!
When he's older, tho, I bet he loves LotR, D&D, Conan, and the all that just like I did. The greatest day in his life was last Sept when we went to the Texas Renaisance Festival. He just couldn't get over it, he thought he'd finally found heaven!