He asked us to (please) understand because he understood us, always.

Iwata also had a few questions for the Chief (Shinya Arino, the "smile and optimism gone" guy) as well, saying at one point “you are not a game developer but you have contributed greatly to the spread and education of video games.”
Shinya replied simply with: “All I do is play and whine!”

I like to think of his answer to Iwata's compliment as this:

And… his smile and optimism are beyond gone now.