Everyone's experience is unique. Just because someone older than you tells you something isn't worth doing doesn't mean that you might not decide to see it for yourself. The Ea decided that their lives weren't worth living, but that's really their call. But I do think that the acquisition of knowledge for its own sake is something that many people find enjoyable, myself included, even purely for the challenge of it. So I can personally understand where Y'shtola is coming from, even if the Ea have lost the 'magic' of discovery themselves.

Nihilism is the philosophical equivalent of being a teenager. It's momentous for its time, but most people eventually move on past the angst to bigger and brighter things. It's a fantastic starting place, though, and well worth experiencing at least at some point in one's life.