I would argue that the largest purpose wealth serves is as the embodiment of greed and corruption. In some ways, even the hobbits are not immune to the lure of wealth, although they fair better than the dwarves (possibly due to a general lack of visible wealth in the community).
Our first introduction to the idea of wealth in general is very much in passing - we learn that the hobbits consider the Bagginses "very respectable, not only because most of them were rich", but this isn't focused on until the next page, when the narrator tells us that Bilbo's father used much of his (and his wife's) money to build "the most luxurious hobbit-hole" for his wife (The Hobbit, 2-3). So, at least for hobbits, one of the impacts of wealth is the importance that comes from what you do with it - whether that is being respectable (and not adventuring) or caring for your family. This idea comes back in The Lord of the Rings when Bilbo throws his and Frodo's combined 111th/33rd birthday party. The wealth itself is interesting to the hobbits - "the riches [...] had now become a local legend [...] tunnels stuffed with treasure" - and the stranger from Michel Delving certainly is fascinated by the idea of the "chests of gold and silver, and jools" that he's heard tales about, but what Bilbo does with his wealth is infinitely more interesting (The Fellowship, 24). The food, entertainment, and presents (all for the enjoyment of friends, family, and community) get far more attention than the wealth itself.
For the dwarves, however, wealth itself is consistently more interesting than what the wealth does. Of course, they mourn the loss of their home, but the focus often is on the wealth itself - they "seek the pale enchanted gold", not their old homes, or their old lives (The Hobbit, 14). As the dwarves sing, Bilbo feels "the love of beautiful things [...] a fierce and jealous love, the desire of the hearts of dwarves" (The Hobbit, 15). When they finally reach the mountain and go inside, their first glimpse of the treasure causes them to "forg[e]t fear and even caution," lost in looking at the treasure even when they know they have limited time and may not be as safe as they currently appear (The Hobbit, 239). Tolkien writes that "when the heart of a dwarf, even the most respectable, is weakened by gold and by jewels, he grows suddenly bold, and he may become fierce" (The Hobbit, 239). The idea of having to share their people's wealth with the struggling people of Laketown, even for the service that Bard provided in killing Smaug, drives them almost to war with the Men and Elves.
Tolkien is very clear in having Thorin repent of his gold-sickness led actions by apologizing to Bilbo ("I leave now all gold and silver, and go where it is of little worth"), and he dies with one of my favorite phrases from The Hobbit, that "if more of us valued food and cheer above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world" (The Hobbit, 290). This, in my mind, is the difference in how Tolkien treats wealth. Hoarded wealth, wealth for the sake of itself, is corrupting. Wealth that is used for others, or not kept solely for the sake of hoarding wealth, is much safer! This even somewhat shows in the One Ring. Smeagol takes the Ring because of greed, and it corrupts him. Bilbo takes it accidentally, and uses it for the good of his friends, and remains mostly uncorrupted.
I'm sure there are many more references, and many other ways that Tolkien uses wealth to advance different messages in his works, but this response has already gotten longer than I'd expected. Have a wonderful day/night all!
I think this is a really well explained point about how Tolkien treats wealth. I really like that he focuses more on what you do with wealth as opposed to how much you have. Wealth is something coveted by both the evil creatures and some of the good ones. For example the dwarves are not evil creatures and though they covet wealth they use it to build great mountain kingdoms and hold great feasts and enrich their whole species. They only encounter problems when they get too greedy and start to covet it just for the sake of having it. This is what attracts the dragons which use wealth in the most evil way possible (in Tolkien's world) they literally just sit on it. I think its a very nuanced take on the relationship people have to money. We shouldn't feel bad for wanting it to make our lives more comfortable and merry but we should be wary of becoming obsessed with the possession of money itself.
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