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"the woods were thick with brigands, bandits and footpads of the worst description"
Well, for roleplaying gamers those would be very different things, implying experience points of different level Thief.
Although only a little is written about werewolves in the Silmarillion, they do seem to be of a higher order of power. Having said that, the only ones specifically mentioned are Draugluin, Carcharoth and Sauron in wolf form and these might not be truly representative of all werewolves.
Wargs generally seem smaller and easier to kill. Possibly the spirits inhabiting the First Age werewolves/wargs were just more powerful. In gaming terms it would then still be reasonable to have wererwolves and wargs/lesser werewolves.
The Silmarillion was never completed by JRR but most of us would still consider it canon. It is clear from many of Tolkien's later letters that he was not settled on many aspects of his world, from things as simple as orcs all the way to cosmology and the nature of elves.