One of the things I noted while reading "The Fall of Númenor" was a statement by Tolkien that each of the peoples of Middle Earth had certain inherent traits - Elves by their nature were undying but would also eventually be drawn to the Sea and away from the world; Men by contrast were mortal in nature and also bound to the world. Indeed, that was at the heart of the Fall - the kings became obsessed with death, and in particular with avoiding it.
Of course, D&D has spent the last several years grappling with much the same issues, but with the opposite conclusions - as far as is possible it has now shifted away from having any sort of inherent traits associated with the species, and instead allows anyone to be anything. Which makes a certain amount of sense for a game - ideally you don't want your PCs to be unnecessarily constrained.
And yet... the consequence of this that I've been grappling with myself is why there are all the various non-human races at all then? After all, if anyone can be anything, and if none of the species have inherent traits, aren't they all just flavours of human? And if they're all just flavours of human, shouldn't they just be human?
I don't have any great conclusion here, except to note that I found it interesting. I'll be thinking on this some more, no doubt.
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