It didn't come across as cold to me in English. I took it to mean that he loved his work, and kept at it right up until the end. i.e. a statement of admiration and praise for his passion.
Yeah, this is more of the nuance, my rough translation would be:
“He had many projects he was passionately working on and many more things he wanted to accomplish, it’s unfortunate (that he won’t be able to complete them)”.
The Japanese is more like "he probably had many more things he wanted to do", no nuance of "there were tasks for us that were left unhandled by his passing".
I believe it's meant to emphasize that despite being 68, he was still working hard for his fans. In Japan that's very much the way that these things are often portrayed, it's essentially eulogizing in a low-key way.
Man, I hope that sounds less cold in the original Japanese than it comes across in English.
"It's such an inconvenience that our manga-ka died when he still had so much work left to turn in!"