First, in a few hundred years, people will argue about Frodo and Sam’s sexuality in exactly the same fashion they now argue about Patroclus and Achilles. And time will be a flat circle.
Second, Sauron was definitely unappreciated as an architect. If I was building cool stuff like that and no one admitted it, I might try to conquer Middle Earth as well. Just to get a spot in Architectural Digest or Builders of Numenor or something. Barad Dur? Definitely worth a magazine cover.