> If there's two things the universe teaches us, it's that (1) our little corner is cosmologically not very special, and (2) extremely terrible and instantly fatal disasters are not rare on long enough timescales — rogue planets, asteroid impacts, gamma ray bursts, and so on.

I hope you re-read this and see the contradiction. If instantly-fatal disasters are not rare, then our little corner isn't just special, it's incredibly, mind-blowing improbability special.

There may be a lot of stars with planets, but how many planets have such large satellites formed as a result of an immense planetary collision? What about ones with such an abundance of water? And a strong magnetic field? And ones that somehow dodged instantly fatal disasters for almost 3.5 billion years - and have such a mind-blowing variety of conditions to lead to increasingly complex life forms?

> Mars is a laboratory for us to see if we can thrive outside our home world.

Survive? Yes. Thrive. Never. Even on a geological scale. We don't even thrive on Earth outside of very narrow temperate bands and massive technological adaptations.