Gollum was nice?

Our Tolkien watching has come to an end tonight, we finally finished the final Lord of the Rings film. I have to say, it has left me even more baffled than the post I had written earlier. I had so many unanswered questions and parts of the plot in the whole middle-earth storyline that just didn't make any sense to me. Such as:

-If the eagles could come and get Frodo and Sam in the end, why didn't Gandalf just have the eagles fly them over the volcano in the first place, and just drop the ring in?
-Why was Gollum still so crazy after being separated from the ring for 60 years?
-Why was Gollum even still alive, when Bilbo aged so quickly once he was separated from the ring?
-Why was the ring so evil the second Frodo received the ring, but we really had no experiences with Bilbo using the ring that showed it was evil?
-Why was Bilbo so happy go lucky with the ring for 60 years, but Frodo was almost immediately ill with the ring?

So many ring questions. So many.
Being who I am, I did a bit of research. I found forums dedicated to middle-earth plot holes that coincided with my own thoughts, leaving other readers defending with speculations. I didn't want speculations though, I was hoping to find my questions clarified by Tolkien himself. I was saddened to discover that my intentions were not so easily fulfilled. Also, It did not surprise me at all to learn that the original version of The Hobbit, printed in 1937, the ring was not at all intended to be evil, and Gollum was not deceitful. It wasn't until Tolkien furthered writing The Lord of the Rings, changing what the ring was, that he went back and revised how Bilbo got the ring, how Gollum behaved, trying to show the ring to be corrupt (in 1951). This has been one of the major points that I have had issues with the whole while, watching all of these movies. Going from The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings feels so disjointed to me. It makes so much sense to know that The Hobbit was originally written that way, because that is exactly how I see it, which makes it not flow with The Lord of the Rings and brings up a lot of plot holes and inconsistencies for me. I honestly find it kind of sad that it was changed, as I think the original version was probably quite wonderful just on its own, without being followed up by The Lord of the Rings. I also think that it would have made Lord of the Rings make more sense for me as well, if it had been a separate story. Does no one else feel the undertones of the original version of The Hobbit that makes it feel like it clashes with The Lord of the Rings?