Paul Farquhar
Legend
The Hobbit is interesting, I happen to be rereading it at the moment. It has a lot of moral complexity for something so self-consciously written for children. But it's overall moral is "greed is bad" (and those dwarves aren't really "good guys").The Hobbit is a little more complicated.
But it follows the same trajectory as HAT, many D&D parties, and even some Conan stories: the protagonists set out in search of personal gain (or just thrill-seeking in Bilbo's case) but end up doing something heroic.
Of course, in Unfinished Tales Tolkien makes it clear that Gandalf was motivated all along by a desire to dispose of the dragon.