Gods in Middle Earth

Hello all,

I have been wondering on the Valar and their titles within Middle Earth. It is very hard to not think of them as gods. Usually, gods can have a wide range of omnipresence, power, omniscience, etc. They're immortal, can remain unknown/invisible if they so wished but can also take on many forms, and some are focused in other areas of nature (the wind, the stars, etc.). In many religions they would have been thought of as gods even if they are just regents of Ilúvatar. Daniel during this last week had a specific phrasing that I think puts a pretty bow on it: "From below they appear as gods, but from above they're known not to be." I guess a question on mind regarding the Valar is, why was Tolkein so explicit that there they weren't gods?

That's all,
Elendil