I am aware of all those female characters, and glad for it. However, his male characters far outweigh the female ones. You have a point about the stay-at-home vs adventure nature of his stories. It's the heroes that make the stories, not the common man (unless the common folk are put in uncommon circumstances, i.e. Hobbit and Lord of the Rings).
I didn't feel it detract either, really. When I saw the movies and Arwen's presence, though, I was pleasantly surprised for more female characters in the story. Also, she didn't feel disjuntled at the end, popping up and marrying Aragorn when we only heard of her twice before, in Many Meetings way back in Fellowship, and only a passing mention plus a song heard as Frodo is leaving the Fire-room at that.
I understand your point about The White Council not being in the original source material, and that it was in the Appendices for Lord of the Rings. However, it is a story directly pertaining to the set up for the sequel; it's not a disjuntled "this is what was happening elsewhere in Middle-Earth at the same time" sort of plot; it has a number of ties in with the plot of The Hobbit, namely the finding of the key and map, the dwarves' desire for vengeance on The Necromancer as well, Gandalf leaving, Gandalf returning, the mentions of the White Council before Gandalf leaves. Things like this. It's a natural extension of the story, and a good use of space since we're breaking up the movie into two parts.
It also shouldn't detract from the feel of the second film, which should be darker and more of the underlying struggles and weariness that comes from an adventure that was more lighthearted earlier. Bilbo was sort of against it all and gloomy until now, but now it's serious business, because he needs to rely on his own power, and there's no one to save him.
