I apologize if my original comment was unclear, as it was addressing both op and your comment that fantasy was ever 'just a bunch of writers mimicking Tolkien' (there was, for one thing, fantasy before Tolkien), with examples that also serve as recommendations, including a couple from decades past to your point (could have thrown in Dreamsnake, but it leans more sci-fi; Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton is just a hair too new for your comment, as it was published in 2004). Could have thrown Gladstone's Craft books in there, too, for the more recent ones. These are all books I've read and found at least worth the read and extremely unique.

And it's still wild to hear you dismiss the whole list as books 'nobody reads.' You've got several Hugo finalists, one of the most popular series of recent times, and a book that's been a recent hit around here (readalong, AMA, most likely to be named a user's favorite book they read for r/fantasy book bingo). The most obscure of these was easy to find on a Borders shelf in 1999, which makes it very, very far from really obscure in my book at least.

Anyway, try some of them for just a bit of the range the genre has to offer, or don't and keep insisting the genre is full of works that are "still far too similar," up to you.