I think, as fans, we were ridiculously spoiled with every kind of success LOTR brought home. It feels like it did everything right.
And now, when we wanted so desperately for lightning to strike twice, the expectations were (I think) quite unfair to the Hobbit films. I never expected these films to match what LOTR did.
And, really, no one in 2001 had any idea that LOTR would do anything close to what it did. So, for me, the Hobbit films did very well and met my expectations. And we shouldn't mistakenly identify that conclusion to be a negative thing.