The distinction in question may be a simplification, but it's more or less an exhaustive choice. The complexity is about how we respond to that choice. So either our species is cosmically crucial or we're not.

How would saying that information is metaphysically primary affect that distinction? It's just irrelevant unless it entailed that the kind of information that amounts to human consciousness is the purpose fulfilled by all the other information.

Saying that the universe matters subjectively to us concedes that we're not objectively meaningful to the universe. Our subjective interpretations are then responses to our choice between those two main possibilities.

Nihilism isn't really the issue (depending on how you define that word), since life can be meaningful either way.