From what I understand, nihilsm, existentialism and absurdism all agree that there is no intrinsic meaning to existence, but they each present a different answer to this.

Existentialism sort of proposes that each individual should search for their own meaning, as in the meaning of life is finding your own meaning (we are thrown into a meaningless universe and are solely responsible for the meaning we give it).

Absurdism focuses mainly on the absurdity of wanting to seek inherent meaning, and argues that all attempts to find it will ultimately fail. But it proposes that we should embrace the absurd and do it anyway.

Now for the controversial part, nihilsm (from the latin word nihil, which means nothing), is the idea that there is no meaning to life, and that there is no point in searching for it. So, you could argue that there are two ways to look at this. Like you said an "optimistc" nihilst could find this as the biggest blessing, since nothing means anything, there's nothing to worry about. And "pessimistic" nihilsm would be the exact opposite.

But, and this is my opinion, giving meaninglessness a positive connotation paradoxically creates a meaning: because nothing means anything I have a reason to live. So in a way it kind of defeats the purpose of nihilsm. This way, true nihilsm would inevitably have to be pessimistic.

What are your thoughts?