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I'd say at 850-points up the Balrog is probably all right, maybe even a little lower than that. In all honesty, he's not that amazing from what I recall from seeing him used and reading online; he's powerful, yes, but also the second or third most expensive model in the game after Smaug and possibly Sauron with the Ring. You could buy a hell of a lot of Goblins and cave trolls with those points that, in general terms, would be less awesome but probably far more nasty. I know that I'd be more inclined to play someone bringing the Balrog at mid-points than someone who just bought 80 Goblins and half a dozen trolls, it would just be more fun (and at that point, wouldn't be about winning or losing, it'd be about whether or not I could bring down a Balrog).

Honestly, there's nothing in LotR that will really make people look down on you for bringing, like there is in 40k. Skewed/spam lists that go all in on one thing can be a pain (all cavalry, all archers ect) but there are counters for them, and even without those the 'power gap' is nowhere near as severe as in 40k.

1000 points of LOTR sbg is a big game. Bringing the balrog at that points level is not bad.

the problem with bringing the balrog is people can ignore it, murder your goblins and force you to keep taking morale checks to see if it runs.