Very aware of how the addition, subtraction or rearrangement of even a couple of words can vastly change the perspective of a story. Also acutely aware of many writers need to not only belt and brace a plot point, but copperplate, apply scaffolding and a big flashing neon sign as well. As writers have little more than a minimum page requirement, it is worth the effort to add all the sub-plots to expand the fantasy.
But, I submit, for film, where your output is limited, there are other more economical means of making points. In this case the actions of Boromir covetting the ring, Othmeil(?) in Lorien (awful memory for names) and the Ringwraiths searching the Shire, made as much if not more impact regarding the rings dangers while adding their own sub-contexts.
If the film had been entitled the Social and Political Development of Hobbits, then Bombadil would have been far more important, for the reasons you expound, and they could have cut out all the Hobbitless nonsense at Wolfhelm and the Paths of the Dead to make room. As it is, the film chose to stay with the War of the Ring and Tom for all his value to the possible greater meaning of the written work, is a minor sub-plot.
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So, no, I can't agree that either point was negligible where the plot was concerned, any more than I could consider the fallout of Reconstruction in post-Civil-War America to be inessential as an element of plot in a novel about Lincoln's assassination and its effect on that nation.
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Afraid I can't comment on Lincoln's assasination, I never knew him. But I would observe that while large political structures and societies can change radically very quickly, the social changes for the greater population, especially in rural areas, are invariably minimal i.e. Farmer Giles is still ploughing with the same horse, he still attends the same church, goes to the same market, his wife is still the daughter of the same farrier etc. Looking at my local town, in 2000 years of shovelling rock from the mountains, the number of times a major social change has been effected can be counted on one hand and only one of those (the formation of the NHS) was due to a national event.