the health talk is important, but the "he worked himself to death" discourse doesn't really apply perfectly to artists and artisans. I'm sorry, but art is just so much more profound, complicated and viseral than material everyday "work".
Of course one can criticize editors and the public when they cry and get mad at artists when they don't meet their insane workflow agendas, that's fair. But there IS a difference between an salesman getting overworked into a heart disease and an artist obsessed with their craft. Admiration for Miura's art, the aknowledgement of his craft and dedication isn't "enabling" abuse or anything, on the contrary, it gives all of his work a profound layer of meaning, makes you consider difficult questions, in this case "how far will someone go for their art? how much will they sacrifice?" i believe there is just no easy answer, and more than anything, i don't believe it is right to just say "he was crazy" or something like that. Fuck that.
His overwork wasn't purely from his dedication though. He spent years destroying himself over berserk to release it on a regular schedule because he had no choice. His being overworked was exactly the same as a salaryman, it wasn't a choice he decided on, it was the requirement for his publication status. Until he was famous enough to not get dropped. The authors notes of Berserk chapters are full of complaints about his health, about his work conditions, he stated he was getting a half day off every
two months. This is, or at least was, the standard of treatment for mangaka. This is
expected in his industry. Japanese work culture is incredibly toxic and the manga and anime industry is among the worst of the worst for it.
And you might argue he would never have continued without that dedication and I'd agree to an extent. I don't think he was bitter at it, he worked with others before being serialized, he knew what was in store for him but I doubt he knew just how bad it would be and by the time it got bad it was already his "normal". He overworked himself for a decade(nearly two) straight. When it got bad he stopped, took hiatuses and tried to be healthier and it worked! He was healthy after all that, but the damage was done. He died after he stopped killing himself over his art, ironically.
All that to say, I don't think Miura is, or was, an example of an artist who pursued their art to their own demise, actively. We know extremely little about who he was in private, we will never know if he considered his work as worth that sacrifice or if it was something he hated in the end. We are not and were not privy to that. What we are privy to are the events leading up to that, we know his industry, we know how he spoke of his work in brief comments, that he was healthy before his death, and we know that in his final years he barely worked on Berserk.
Personally I think he realized he spent his golden years locked in a closet drawing 90% of his time away and decided to forgo Berserk to live a little, occasionally sitting down to draw but largely doing what he wanted. I like to imagine he was enjoying his life during that time rather than agonizing over his art.
Also holy shit I need to stop writing essays at midnight on random manga forums