[The earth, with 70% water coverage, may be a very rare planetary type. Keep in mind, if you bulldozed the continents flat and spread them out evenly in the ocean basins, the world ocean would be an average depth of close to two miles, but the Earth has a diameter of 8 thousand miles. The oceans are a very thin film of moisture on a very big ball. Either we're extremely lucky, or some mechanism operates to maintain this water level fairly constant over geologic periods of time. Perhaps this mechanism is a factor on other worlds, too.]

Some of that is of course, called 'weather'... our biosphere depends on humidity to sustain life and plant life. Our moon causes tides and the seasons add to different types of weather which all tend to relate to each other as they sustain the life that has evolved under such circumstances and places on Earth. Biology on Earth has learned to adapt in all of the above.

I think Phil has something there when he spoke about our moon and it's origin. They say it was a 'planet' sized object, but it could have been a very big comet.

In everything else you said up there, Hank, I agree.