Yeah, that's a different metaphor from our real-world experience that fits a different aspect of the
not real world of magic. There are a number of real-life examples that partially fit the Rings of Power in different ways, but none of them perfectly.
There is a particular confusion or conflict I've been struggling with in thinking about this. There are 'tools' -- things you hold in your hand, like axes and hammers and spades and spears -- and there are 'tools' -- huge machines like water-wheels and windmills, or starships for that matter. It certainly needs at least some degree of personal skills to use a hand-held tool. But real-life hand-held tools are especially strict in skill requirements and have limited effects. On the other hand it might not require a great deal of skill to flip a lever and start a water-wheel or windmill grinding corn or something like that. And the effects of these large-scale tools that don't have such strict personal skill requirements can be huge. Rings of Power seem to be both of these types at once.
* First of all using anything, basic tools of ordinary arts or trades, let alone magical devices, requires some sort of basic knowledge. Of course you can't just pick up a chisel and produce a sculpture to rival Michelangelo. It needs years of experience to learn how stone reacts to your chisel and how to shape it to match your imagination -- or model. Why would this be any different with 'magic' -- which is really an older way of thinking about technology. Remember Arthur C. Clarke: "Any sufficiently advanced
technology is indistinguishable from
magic." which is another way of saying "Any technology
you don't understand seems like magic"... A crossbow is a fearsome magical weapon if you don't know how it works. A shaft just 'magically' flies from the weapon and appears in the target, inflicting terrible wounds. This is what Galadriel warns Frodo of by way of explanation when he asks why he hasn't been seeing into the souls of other Ring-bearers. He would have to make the effort to learn how to use The One Ring. But that leads to the second point...
* Second, everyone has 'native strength' and 'native ability' in magic just as with physical strength and talent. You can exhaust yourself in magical efforts as surely as in physical efforts, just like someone swinging a sword gets tired after a while. And of course, different -- persons? beings? -- have differing levels of strength. Sauron is clearly very strong, along with being very skilled/knowledgeable. (These two are not quite the same thing, but closely related) It requires a certain amount of 'strength' in the magical/spiritual sense to be able to use the Great Rings at all. But also you need to have the actual capacity to use whatever power the magical thing is imbued with. Whatever someone already has, or
is, will be enhanced. New power will not be acquired. This again is like hand-held tools. Gollum didn't learn anything magical from possessing the One Ring. He just became a superb sneak murderer, which he was already. As Galadriel warned him (and Gandalf in a slightly different way), Frodo wouldn't be much of a Dark Lord even if he tried to learn how to use the true power of the One Ring. Most likely he could not develop it's true power at all...
And yet, Gollum did not have the ability to turn invisible before possessing the One Ring... so this similarity to hand-held tools is not absolute. And when someone who does have sufficient 'inherent' power and/or talent to use a Great Ring, like Galadriel, puts it to use, this 'hand-held' device can have
geographically broad-ranging effects like a massive machine. Has anyone ever tried to calculate how many hundreds of square miles Galadriel controls in Lothlorien? And whatever that control is, she is able to ward the armies of Sauron from her realm, as long a he himself does not show up to lead them. It's as if the Ring is a catalyst or focusing device for something else -- which leads me back to the water-wheel or windmill metaphor as an example of collecting power from somewhere else and re-channeling it. It's a skill-based thing, and a massive-machine thing at the same time.