McVeigh was a gutless coward and a terrorist and would be regarded as such no matter what building he blew up and whether or not he killed or injured anyone.
He would never be a national hero.
William Ayers is feted and lauded at each of his speaking engagements. He is roundly glad handed by obsequious talk show hosts while their audiences applaud fervently.
To gain equal notoriety, McVeigh would have had to claimed his actions a protest against the bourgeois military industrial complex.