Every ring-bearer can help you in some way, you just need to choose the deck you feel will work best.
Deck 1 is the only one to have Sam. And it's the strongest Sam in the game.
Deck 2 has Frodo that is a bit stronger when swarmed.
Deck 3 has Frodo with higher resistance, allowing you to bid more and decide if you want to be ahead from the start of the game or remain safe for one turn longer.
You could have lost the game due to Sam taking the ring. You could have lost due to adding 11 burdens and still not corrupting.
Probably decks are not 100% perfectly balanced - if I tested them too much I would have unfair advantage when playing the league. But they are quite close (definitely closer than some of the Decipher's starters) and choosing what works best is part of the challenge. I decided I did not want set 15 Frodo, now the games I play will prove if it was a good decision (so far I played two games but none of them against the Dwarf/Elf starter).