[henry quirk]

“If life is common, and free will where there's life is common, where does the "humans are special" part come in?”

‘If’

As you say: we don’t know, may not ever know, may not be able to know.

We do know living matter exists ‘here’ and we know self-aware matter exists ‘here’, and it seems just within the confines of our system to be rare.

As I say: it would be great if the universe, our galactic cluster, our galaxy, our system, teemed with self-aware (or even just living) matter. My gut tells me not to hold my breath waiting for evidence.

As aside: if Reality is overflowing with living matter and self-aware matter, it still would be a rarity cuz - again - matter is rare (the universe is mostly a big empty volume).