Oh, yes. Tolkien had many divisions of elves—high elves, grey elves, sylvan elves, dark elves, sea elves, deep elves, green elves. While D&D cribbed the names of some of these, the actual implementation differed markedly from Tolkien's elves in many ways—especially with dark elves and sea elves.
While they were superhuman, Tolkien far more often described them elves as graceful and beautiful. He called them out for their dex far more often than strength or health.
It's almost like D&D was INFLUENCED(not copied) by Tolkien, just like Tolkien was INFLUENCED(and did not copy) by mythology.
Yes, both those statementments are true, but how do either pertain to whether racial ASI should be immutable or even exist?
Since Tolkien only influenced Gygax when it came to creating D&D Elves, it makes sense that Gygax would choose dex, one of the attributes most mentioned by Tolkien, for his racial bonus. Could he have chosen Con or Cha, sure. But he didn't, so D&D Elves are dexterous. Same with Dwarves and their con bonus, and Halflings and their dex bonus.
Yes, that explains where the ASI originally came from. Still, how does that pertain to whether racial ASI should be immutable or even exist?
They should exist, because the racial abilities support their existence. Elves ARE more dexterous than the baseline in D&D. This is fact. Halflings ARE more dexterous than the baseline in D&D. Half-orcs ARE stronger than the baseline in D&D. These are also facts. Those facts mean that the stat bonuses to reflect them should exist. Nothing in D&D is immutable, but not being immutable is not good cause to change them.
If you look at the 5E DMG's "NPC Features" (pg. 282), that section assumes that non-adventuring NPC elves, dwarves, etc. have certain ability score adjustments by default. If you encounter an elf commoner, they're going to have a higher Dex than a human commoner. So while Wizards and the rest of us can certainly change perceptions of what those adjustments mean, the idea that these adjustments are inherent to that character race/culture isn't just something players thought; it's been a key assumption of the game up to this point. (4E may have been the only exception.)
For my part i disallow mountain dwarf subrace in my campaign because i do not see why Bruenor would start out stronger than Conan. I am ok with halforc +2 to Str though.
