Ah yes, "LoTR good". Lord of the Rings is like a play-by-play account of a D&D campaign. I think my favorite part is when Frodo and Sam are at the top of a cliff and discuss for several pages the best way to climb down. Thanks, Tolkien!
No good DM would split the party for such a long time.
Agreed, but sometimes that's on the party. A good DM also doesn't railroad the PCs.
LOTR D&D, Chapter Elrond's Council:
Frodo_Player: "So I have to go on a suicide mission to the most dangerous place in the world---"
Boromir_Player: "One does not simply walk into Morodor."
Frodo_Player: "Frank, shut up. So anyway, I have this super powerful ring and I can choose to become a powerful Lich or go on a certain death journey."
GM_As_Elrond: "Well, um... the ring must be destroyed."
Frodo_Player: "Yeah, I'm going to the bad route on this one. I pop on the ring."
GM: "No, I mean.. you can't choose to not go on the journey, I have like 1000 pages of story and encounter written for this."
Frod_Player: "I guess you should have narrated this part then. I'm going to climb to a high point and try to flag down a Nazgul for a ride."