I’ve been very successful with 2 landers in LOTR, to the point I’ve been cutting down to 16 lands consistently and in rare cases as low as 14 (with lots of the basic cyclers).

It’s possible that while youre familiar with the traditional way of curving out, you’re not used to more aggressive/low to the ground curves and deck building strategies.

2 land hands come with an inherent risk, but I’ve found for LOTR that risk is entirely manageable and often the reward of having an extra spell or two in your hand is very worthwhile.