Mhoram,
Here's my point.
The original post I responded to made the statement that Sauron with the Ring was more powerful than Morgoth. That, I think, creates a false impression.
In the essay you quoted, Tolkien is using greatness to refer to the concentration of power within an individual being, not necessarily the total power at his disposal. So greatness, as used in that essay, is not quite synonymous with overall power. Although Morgoth had dispersed his vastly greater power into the physical world to dominate it, he still had control of a great deal of that power at the end of the First Age, including Men, Orcs, Dragons, and Balrogs. He had merely transformed his powers of "mind and spirit" into physical force.
He was able to defeat the combined hosts of Beleriand: Noldor, Sindar, and Edain. At the end of the First Age, only the Host of the Valar could finally overcome him and the forces he commanded.
Sauron's armies, while Sauron held the Ring, would not stand against just the Numenoreans; although Sauron later was able to cause the downfall of Numenor through subterfuge. At the end of the Second Age, with the Ring, Sauron himself and all his forces were utterly defeated by the Last Alliance, which I'm sure was a much weaker force than the Host of the Valar, and Sauron could have been completely annihilated at that time.
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