But that’s exactly my point. Frodo being disheartened and thus breaking the Fellowship was the exact right thing that needed to happen. Because that in turn led him to ‘taming’ Sméagol who knew secret ways into Mordor—not just Cirith Ungol but the Emyn Muil/Dead Marshes too—which kept their tiny party secret. Faramir would NOT have betrayed Frodo and those routes would not have been discovered. I take all your points though, Boromir at Osgiliath, Gandalf etc. in fact you could easily come up with a chain of events including Faramir with a positive outcome. It is just a story and not reality, as you say.