My words were very carefully chosen.
Note my reference to hydrogen, helium, and a trace of lithium. These are the only elements that were created by the big bang and the only elements that would have been available for the formation of the first generation of stars and planet-sized bodies.
No carbon ... no life.
The first possible lifeforms could not have formed until those first-generation stars supernovaed releasing carbon and metals into the interstellar media.
Thus life, by definition, requires a time in the universe prior to its formation during which no life existed. Proving life is unessential for a functioning universe.
The argument could alternatively be stated this way. Smallpox is a consequence of natural processes but the universe does not require smallpox for its existence. Feel free to substitute Dodo birds, extinct dinosaurs, or at the rate we are going, Homo homo sapiens.
