Those are a lot of predecessors, without even going back farther into the gothic, romantic, or arthurian traditions.
And for expectations now? It's not Tolkien that created them. Certainly, many authors have aped Tolkien's plot arc of a scrappy resistance against a resurging Dark Lord, but few have actually followed many of his conceits. How often do you see fantasy nowadays take place in a provably monotheistic universe, where the users of magic are beings of power, and elves are not simply long-lived humanoids but immortals of a different order of existence?
That's not the legacy we see. Modern Fantasy purports to draw on Tolkien because Tolkien became very popular outside of the genre audience that was very well entrenched despite claims it didn't exist. In reality, it draws on Tolkien, yes, but as much or more it draws on Howard, Vance, LeGuin, and Gygax.
Yes, Gary Gygax. While Lord of the Rings was a huge, generally popular example of the fantasy genre, Middle Earth is very insular, and its conceits are not often repeated in modern fantasy even if its trappings are. It is not entirely Tolkien's own tropes that have influenced the fantasy of the eighties, nineties, and later, but the melting-pot synthesis that was Dungeons and Dragons. But while D&D plundered everything that came before it (including a lot of Tolkien), it also invented its own conceits, and mixed the old in new ways. Like, a Lich seems like such a classic creature, but it's a merger of the sometimes undead evil sorcerers of Robert E. Howard and the like with Koschei the Deathless, and adding dashes of Gygax's own opinions on magic -- namely, how much the settings of early D&D broke from tolkien's norms in making spell-casters essentially normal people. Gygax's wizards (drawing on Jack Vance's Dying Earth) are mortals with knowledge, not gods or fair folk or the tainted priests of ancient and forgotten gods. Nowadays, that's pretty common. Magic
systems are something worth considering, something done before, yes, but how often? And how popularly?
And certainly not in Tolkien.
Modern fantasy actually owes a ton to sources less respected than its flagships. The fantasy genre became more codified in around the time of Tolkien, but it was not Tolkien's doing, at least not entirely. Tolkien wrote with consummate skill about a world much like our own, but in which not all of the magical wonder of mythology had faded, an age, the third of his world, in which some godlike beings still walked the world and some wonders could still be performed.
The Lord of the Rings is in large part about a growing up of the world, of the loss of that magic but the gaining of a greater understanding.
The fantasy we see more of, though, is stories of swords and sorcery, high adventures with mighty heroes, in worlds unlike our own, where magic and wonder still lives, even thrives. This is the Fantasy of Howard, and Vance, and LeGuin, and absolutely of Gygax. While Tolkien has been pillaged again and again, as I said before for his arc, even the likes of Terry Brooks and Dennis L McKiernan (The authors of blatant Tolkien cover-bands
The Sword of Shannara and
The Iron Tower, as well as other, more original things) often give us a universe quite unlike Tolkien's.
And the genre continues to evolve, as new refinements and new luminaries add their tales to the bulk. Rowling has had a ton of influence on the fantasy we read now, providing her society of young witches and wizards, letting those without fantasy college work magic. And for that matter, Garfield and Rosewater have added their own notes to the dominant themes. Magic: The Gathering has been around for over 20 years now, and while Urza and Mishra, Gerrard and Hanna, may not be entering the public consciousness of Legolas or Hermione, they probably stand alongside the likes of Lord Juss, Randolph Carter, and Ged -- not known by name, but felt by reputation. I say this because twenty years ago I doubt you would have found the same sort of Magitech you see a lot nowadays, nor younger spellcasters limited by how much power they can draw. These are very familiar images...
When it comes to expectations, I feel like M:tG of now, playing to a mass market, does have to kowtow to some. When they want to ape greek mythology, they bring out minotaurs, pegasi, and yes, Krakens rather than generic undifferentiated sea-monsters. When they do their spin on gothic horror, they give us
Rooftop Storm as a nod a certain gothic tale. But all the same, M:tG can innovate a TON. IT already has, and because it's one of the tier 2 fantasy properties in how many people it actually reaches (Below, you know, GoT and Tolkien movies) other things react to it.
... That one kinda got away from me, didn't it?