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Nihilism isn't generally something someone 'wants' to have as a belief system. It probably can never be truly manifested, just touched upon briefly in passing as one slides down the philosophical scale. As for it being cowardly, it is probably the visceral truth of it that makes it impossible to hold on to. No one can live as a nihilist, even if they recognize the truth in it. They either snap back to a more ego-protective/cultivative ethos or die. People need goals and values, even if they are all completely arbitrary or biological, we can't function without them. Still, having touched on something approaching nihilism makes a person much less susceptible to Mortality Salience type of manipulation by others.
Mortality Salience is when something like terrorism is used to make one's death a conceivable reality, and in that consideration and immediacy of the moment, we alter our risk/benefit analyses and many other behaviors, such as how we vote in elections.
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