It has been mentioned several times, and Makaya even calls it woo, which is ironic, since Ward and Brownlee use a modified form of Drake's equation as the heart of their Rare Earth theory!
But that's the whole point that Makaya keeps missing. Any attempt to estimate the probability of advanced alien life is an exercise in guesswork. We just know far too little about the real requirements. We have precisely one data point to work with, which makes the entire subject one huge error bar. In fact, there is only one thing we can say with certainty.
It is possible for an advanced technological civilization to evolve in this Universe.
So, my challenge to Makaya is simple. Falsify that statement, if you can.