Vintage kept its restricted list, because some people wanted to play with powerful cards (and also because Type 1.5, aka legacy had started to take root, which, at the time, was just vintage with the restricted list renamed "banned list"), but in standard, you already couldn't play with all your cards, so there really wasn't any good reason to keep a restricted list

In addition to leading to a much more powerful late game because you have very few lands remaining and a lot of powerful spells in your deck, this also makes cards that can use the cards in your graveyard betterLrien Revealed makes Gandalfs Sanction better and the creatures make Sams Desperate Rescue and Revive the Shire betterin addition to making sure you have a target, they change the way these cards function from just getting back a card youve already cast, meaning one that you had enough mana to cast previously, land cyclers allow you get back either a land or a more expensive creature, giving you both more consistency and more flexibility
For , you can cast this Legendary Vampire Knight Sphinx
All in all, the biggest point of contention for fitting into the Magic universe is probably the fact that the plane of Middle-earth feels decidedly un- Magic