Except, you know, LotR was had biggest CG battles in movie history up until that point and still ranks pretty high today. They definitely didn't take the easy route by actually filming a lot of scenes outside while innovating on the CG front dramatically to make huge battles possible the likes of which were deemed nearly impossible at the time, though. There were some large innovations in the Hobbit movies too but they didn't land. And yeah, too much green screens. They should've done it the hard way while still using just as much CG.

LOTR has tons of green screen and CGI. The Hobbit didn't have the prep time that LOTR did, which meant they were figuring out what things looked like after shooting instead of before.

Basically every great effect film had tons of pre-production. You can't figure it out in post and have it land.