There is an interesting parallel between this and the Philippines incident. In both cases, we have a government with agents that did not act as competently as they could have. In both cases, it seems death could have been avoided. Of course, the Nepalese was committing a crime where as the HK people were merely victims which makes him less sympathetic however the result is the same and I don't think anyone would say that death was a befitting punishment for the crime of the Nepalese and most would agree that both situations could have been handled better.
Yet, I sense most people would feel that the Philippines government should pay compensation whereas much fewer might feel the same about the Nepalese. On one hand, the HK people that passed away had a much better chance of generating significant amount of income, on the other hand, the Philippine government is far less richer than the HK government.
I'd have to say that if the HK government puts pressure and expects compensation for the families then I guess it should make a similar gesture towards the Nepalese.
As to precedent, either cases are isolated and rare and one would hope that similar events would have a better outcome in the future so it's not really a solid argument.