The shire is a confusing place where the logic makes no sense bc most of its lore was established before tolkien knew his satire of modern rural english polite society would be going into his fairy tale.
In lotr he tries to salvage it a bit with the chapters showing the shire outside of hobbiton, and the whole very clearly premodern social systems, but that just makes the rural victorian aesthetics (rsvp letters! umbrellas!) stand out more and beg for explanation.
The shire is a confusing place where the logic makes no sense bc most of its lore was established before tolkien knew his satire of modern rural english polite society would be going into his fairy tale.
In lotr he tries to salvage it a bit with the chapters showing the shire outside of hobbiton, and the whole very clearly premodern social systems, but that just makes the rural victorian aesthetics (rsvp letters! umbrellas!) stand out more and beg for explanation.