re: How much of a joke is it that Star Wars was ever thought to be equal to Lord of the Rings?

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I dont think that’s true.

Superhero movies were making money for decades before LOTR.

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Not really. All there really was was Spider-Man and X-Men. Batman being a success in 1989 isn’t much of an argument. Batman Begins was a minor success in 2005.

Now maybe they would have done Iron-Man, but such a gamble of the entire MCU, no. Maybe ten years later, but Lord of the Rings is what made them take the gamble.

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did it launch an interconnected cinematic universe that throttled box offices for 11 years?

It’s a great movie but it’s basically just lead to shitty movies being dark and gritty.

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I would say Batman Begins had more of an impact on Iron Man/MCU than any other movie. Iron Man was clearly modeled after BB more than any other film with the in depth origin story and gritty nature. Iron Man was the grittiest movie in the MCU, because he played off of the success of the nature of BB. And it worked. Iron Man is still a top 3 MCU film for me. The MCU gradually transitioned away from gritty, outside of Infinity Wat and Endgame and a few others until it essentially became a comedy genre.

I love LOTR as much as anybody (well maybe on OML), and the books even more, but I think the LOTR movies had absolutely nothing to do with the MCU getting made/wouldn't have the MCU without LOTR. LOTR is not even a cinematic universe. It's a trilogy with an extremely forgettable prequel trilogy.