re: How would the discovery of life on other planets affect us?

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I simply wonder why one must conclude that because they do not understand exactly how the universe(or other universes) and life began, it must have been an intelligent designer by default

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I didn't say that "by default" - I said that the operation, at a minimum, mimics intelligence, and there are few ways around that. Something that mimics intelligence (and evolutionary processes do this - so do artificial things, such as dollar cost averaging) - to discount actual intelligence as a possible explanation seems to fit the very definition of counter-intuitive.

What I'm saying is "life" on Earth (or anything similar to this phenomenon) - appears, on its surface to have been part of a designed system. There is flora and fauna at every step and tier, and those forms appear to be adapting to each other's presence on the planet. Rocks, rivers, other natural, inorganic features also "respond" to the presence of life, but not actively - only indirectly, and, generally, in a destructive relation from the life towards the non-life perspective.

That diversity only makes sense within the system - if we all started out from the same, common, simple life form ancestor - what evolutionary advantage came from becoming prey? What evolutionary advantage did wings present before the creature was able to fly? Ditto for legs for dry land.

I understand that millions of years supposedly explains this - but, seriously - how is the mutant fish reproducing (until the point it becomes the dominant type in it's chain) and passing on the vestigal legs until he can walk and breathe on dry land? If this were actually happening all the time (as is suggested - almost required by evolutionary theory) why don't we see all those intermediate forms (or their counterparts with other species)?

Or is it as simple as it constituting a designed system that introduced all the forms necessary, engineered to produce the diversity we see in a relatively short period of time (geologically), then produce a fairly stable (again, relatively) ecosystem of organisms?