The Fermi Paradox, to me, is more a philosophical question about the destructive nature of humanity, than it is actually talking about alien civilization. Points of note are 'what is the bottleneck to traveling outside of the space we inhabit?'. Why does one ask the question 'why don't we see life everywhere?'.

Lately, some of the time I see this as a metaphor for 'what is the dilemma with broadening horizons?'

There could be alien life, there could not be. It's interesting to think about for a while but sometimes I think it is talking about something deeper than the existence of aliens and outer space. Philosophical question about the nature of existence.