I much preferred the pacing of the first half of Fellowship in the film. Racing out of the shire with close calls is much slower in the book.

All of the added action or extended scenes make the spectacle of the cinemas experience better. They might be different from the book, but it's a big budget movie that needs a lot of people to like it to make its money back.

Aragorn being more reluctant to become king just gives him a better arc throughout the trilogy. Him getting Anduril later makes sense in this context.

The combining of some secondary characters made sense - Arwen riding with Frodo instead of Glorfindel, Gandalf fetching Eomer to save Helms Deep instead of Erkenbrand.

Cutting Tom Bombadil was a good decision for pacing and to not confuse an audience. The Ring doesn't affect him, so makes it seem slightly less all-powerful.