Worldbuilding is the best, especially in fic! And especially with Tolkien's world there's just so much going on all the time and so much to explore. Tolkien himself focused mostly on the elves (and he didn't finish with them, at that) so that leaves us with all the realms of Men and Dwarves and so on. There was absolutely stuff going on there even if we don't really see it that much!

(Ooh seeing Thorin/Bilbo from Gimli's POV sounds lovely, it's not something I've seen too much of previously :D)