We didn't have to be first. Other primates might have picked up the rock before we did, but eventually lost the race. Maybe the fire-cooking, rock-throwing domesticating niche is just that competitive.

So it might be more like "we are the ones that remain", but yeah, either variant is a spin on the old weak anthropic principle, which is never quite satisfying.

And we do seem to have wiped out/outcompeted Neanderthals etc.

> fire-cooking, rock-throwing domesticating niche

Just knowing if that was the evolutionary pressure along the path would be enough for me (even if it could have been another ape or a corvid or whatever - or maybe they are on that path now?)

BTW Matt Ridley has the theory that division of labour (trade enabling specialization) was the gradient.

Just because there's no detail, or it's not satisfying, doesn't mean it's less likely.