You've made a meaningful distinction between "niceness" and kindness. Kindness is usually gentle but may be firm, being nice isn't always being kind.

The etymology of "kind" is somewhat revealing, and two concept jumped out at me - one, treating someone as if they were family, and two - the deliberate nature. A choosing.

Niceness, too often can just be a signal - don't harm me I'm not dangerous. Kindness between two dangerous men takes on a different aspect - respect, moderation, cordiality, and aknowledgement of value.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/kind

kind (adj.)

"friendly, deliberately doing good to others," Middle English kinde, from Old English (ge)cynde "natural, native, innate," originally "with the feeling of relatives for each other," from Proto-Germanic *kundi- "natural, native," from *kunjam "family" (see kin), with collective or generalizing prefix *ga- and abstract suffix *-iz. The word rarely appeared in Old English without the prefix, but Old English also had it as a word-forming element -cund "born of, of a particular nature" (see kind (n.)). Sense development probably is from "with natural feelings," to "well-disposed" (c. 1300), "benign, compassionate, loving, full of tenderness" (c. 1300)

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