I agree...I would not want to have been in his Jewell-encrusted shoes.
And he died for his faith, which is a lot more than a lot of us will be called to do.
As Maine Mariner pointed out above, Russia was modernizing with some success in the late 19th century. However, the Czar was in many ways frozen in time. For example, one book I read said that Nicholas’s teachers were not allowed to ask him questions to see how he understood what he was taught. That would have encroached on his royal dignity.
I would describe Nicholas II as dutiful, devout, kind, and courageous. However, he would have needed to be a very different person - original, creative, decisive, open to all possibilities - in order to have a chance of succeeding during World War I and later.