You improve on this by...

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2003)

...well, you only do so by including the remainder of the extended footage whose absence is so obvious: the walk from Minas Tirith to the Black Gate, Frodo's time among the yrch, the palaver with Saruman. That's the only way. So, given all that does exist and was only cut for time, that means that what's left still rates the rank it would have if they'd been included, which is a ten of ten.
Sometimes, you just have to think these things through, you know?
Cheers!