system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[LotR] if the Valar wanted to see their world play out and not intervene, then why send the Istari?

Why send the Istari if they just wanted to see the world play out as it was? If they did care, then why not intervene themselves or allow the Istari more power?
gpt
They do care. They care so much about the world and letting it develop on its own that they DON'T directly intervene. The very fact they sent literal angels down to aid the people of middle earth shows how much they care. 

The thing is, as we saw in the first age, if the Valar directly intervene, middle earth will no longer be middle earth. Their direct involvement tends to reshape continents, destroy untold amounts of land and kill everyone living on it. If they allowed the wizards unfettered access to a repertoire of divine abilities, they would no longer be able to accomplish their mission of making the MORTALS solve the problem and GROW from the experience. The mortals would just come to depend on the magic and stagnate while the power does everything. And it's possible that if an Istari were allowed full access to a magical armory, they could let that power go to their head and become another magical lord over an army of worshiping mortals. 

If you want to look at it in a really cold, clinical way, the Valar and Eru above are looking down at a petri dish. They could easily drop in some chemicals and eradicate a growing infection, but the goal of the experiment is to see how all the other microbes adapt to it and learn how to kill the bad cells on their own. Dropping in chemicals and agents would probably kill just as many of the desired subject species as it would the infectious. When the desired cells learn how to adapt to the infection on their own, there will never again be a need for said chemicals. And the immunity will be passed on for the rest of the experiment/existence. 

The Istari in this analogy are like specifically designed food and hormones that promote growth. The Istari can help, they can advise, their mission is to do their best to make sure everyone stands on their own and deals with the problem. In this experiment idea, they help the good cells grow and mature faster than they would naturally, speeding along their defense building until they, again, can handle it on their own.