I think your link is pointing to the other Appendix N book. The one by Mr. Johnson is this one.
I remember trying to channel the Tolkien vibe to my characters the first few D&D games. That did not last for long.
In my (very mindflayed) mind, the question is: Is WotC TOO attached to its "we sell books" paradigm?
I got the old AD&D CD-ROM Core Rules + expansion, with all the nifty (and sometimes buggy) software and it included about 20(?) books in (editable) rich text format. It was a product of its age...