#whereas sauron explicitly rejects any worldviews that require he do anything humbler than what he (thinks he) deserves

[tolkien-feels]

My conspiracy theory, actually, is that if Tolkien had ever written a long, long story centered on the Second Age, he might just have explored how Sauron takes over his mentor and lord Morgoth to the point where he seems to want to substitute him, while Elrond will not take over Gil-galad's authority if every elf alive begs him to. It's just the kind of parallel Tolkien loves tbh