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Others have pointed out (Flieger for one) that Tolkien had an 'Elvish' aspect to his character, a yearning for a lost ideal past. Maybe that's what comes through in his writings. He can accuse the Elves of wishing to 'embalm' the world, fix it into an ideal state from which it can never move on, but he has this nostalgic tendency himself. For the Elves time itself was a kind of enemy, bringing change. The past was always the ideal place to which they strove to return. The writers of the Red Book - Bilbo, Frodo & Sam all seem to have had an extreme love of the Elves & perhaps this comes through in the Legendarium - it is not an unbiassed account of events, but one written by non Elves in an 'Elvish' mood. Perhaps if the original accounts had been written by others it would have been more 'positive' about the future.
Certainly many things are lost forever, & they are things worthy of being mourned by those left behind, but the story is not without hope & hope is always forward looking, as regret is always backward looking.
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