I have seen the dark universe yawning
Where the black planets roll without aim—
Where they roll in their horror unheeded,
Without knowledge or lustre or name.

—Nemesis. (H P Lovecraft_

You forgot one major show-changing bit: the book was about an invasion from other worlds in the multiverse. Presumably this means The Observer and much of the weird technology is from parallel worlds too. It fits with Abrams' statement that there are no aliens in the show, but that The Observer was from Earth but not where we can see him. Unless Walter was nuts when he wrote the book, but I get the district impression that he wasn't nuts before he was commited for 17 years.