That's an interesting viewpoint. I must admit that while I love JRRT's original illustrations one of the things I really enjoy about Tolkien fandom is the wonderful range of fan art that exists, and it really works for me to have different editions with different illustrations.

I think one of the main points of her style for the Hobbit is that her drawings are very much intended to be children's storybook illustrations - as opposed the epic, filmic style that has been popular in the official illustrations over the last 20 years or so, even before the films.

In any case, she seemed like a really nice person, and to have genuinely enjoyed being at Oxonmoot, so I think they could have done far worse. :-)