A look online tells me that the game you are talking about isn't even the one I was talking about, which was The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game which came out in 2002 (which I never read further than noticing that it had movie pictures all over it, so I didn't recall its name exactly until I looked it up just now; I can't stand the movie adaptations, and I wouldn't've been able to get through reading the thing). The One Ring doesn't look familiar to me at all. Apparently, it is new enough that I hadn't actually heard of it, and was talking about the newest one prior to its release. Since the one I was speaking of had pictures of the films on the covers as well as in the books, and The One Ring appears to have paintings on the covers and some manner of artwork inside from what I can tell with an internet search, that might've been a hint we weren't actually talking about the same system.
From the research I've just now done on it online, it sounds like it would indeed be a reasonable alternative. I don't think it would be to my taste as a system, personally; I've never yet met a dice pool/point levelling system I've liked, and I tend to feel that -- regardless of atmosphere or feeling -- a system needs to have more robust combat rules and that social rules tend to get in the way of roleplaying more than they aid it. From what I've read, I don't really like the idea of the Traits system, but that could actually work better than it sounds like from the articles I've found. I do appreciate that it seems to take the feel of the setting seriously, though.
How well does it do as for general adventuring in Middle-earth through the ages? It sounds like it's geared fairly specifically towards the late Third Age, but as I tend to think that it works best to set adventures far enough into the Fourth Age that one isn't directly conflicting with anything already established, I'm curious how well The One Ring would work for that.
That is, indeed, the one large problem with MERP. I run it with a few house rules for the magic, but that is cutting out a chunk of the system, albeit a chunk that comes free fairly easily and leaves the rest intact. Bards are the only casting class allowed, and they are heavily restricted in their lists, as well as assumed to be rare. I remove spell lists from every other class, and any spell casting specific class (aside from bards) are removed. The rather odd corruption point system is gone, and we also have implemented a system for words of power, which are themselves quite rare, and I've given a little bit more attention to the first aid type skills to compensate for complete lack of magical healing (save through some herbs, but some of those herbs are also out).
It does take a bit of doing to get the magic system to completely match the right feel for Middle-earth, but as I like the mechanics of the rest of the game, I consider it a reasonable trade off -- although it would be nice if it had come with a more appropriate magic system to begin with.