I agree. In addition to the chemical elements like water, as mentioned in the article, the impact with Theia also enabled strong magmatic activity at the core of the planet, and that was a critical element as well to sustain life.
Probably the strong magnetic activity of the Earth's core was key to maintaining the atmosphere, but also, the magmatic heat contributed to keeping the planet at a good temperature to support life when a young Sun provided significantly less radiation.
All these elements may suggest that the collision is needed to satisfy the very strict requirements about where the planet is located and about the size and composition of the colliding planet. This makes the probability for life-sustaining planets in the Drake equation extremely low.
As an indirect proof of the tightness of the condition is the fact that the Earth in its history had periods of climate extremes hostile to life, like the Snowball Earth when the planet was completely covered by ice and snow, or at the opposite extreme, the very hot periods when the greenhouse effect was dominating the climate.
Probably the strong magnetic activity of the Earth's core was key to maintaining the atmosphere, but also, the magmatic heat contributed to keeping the planet at a good temperature to support life when a young Sun provided significantly less radiation.
All these elements may suggest that the collision is needed to satisfy the very strict requirements about where the planet is located and about the size and composition of the colliding planet. This makes the probability for life-sustaining planets in the Drake equation extremely low.
As an indirect proof of the tightness of the condition is the fact that the Earth in its history had periods of climate extremes hostile to life, like the Snowball Earth when the planet was completely covered by ice and snow, or at the opposite extreme, the very hot periods when the greenhouse effect was dominating the climate.