Self aware matter is very rare in the universe.
Even if you don’t believe in God you can still think of intelligent life as rare thing in this universe. How much matter in this universe is self aware? How about our solar system? How about just the Earth. Even on the scale of the Earth, very little matter is self aware.
There are countless dead worlds with no life. You could travel to system after system and find countless dead worlds. Only rarely would you a live world with intelligent life.
You want to find a silicate rock in this universe. They are everywhere. You want to find intelligent life, you’ll have a hard time.
We are a rare thing in the universe. We are unlike any matter that we know of. That makes us special and valuable IMO.