I argue that space-faring civilization goal should be independent of alien encountering.

If the Great Filter is ahead of us, becoming a space-faring civilization sooner increases the odds of surviving it.

(And that's the main argument for the Great Filter being behind us, it is hard to imagine that we are fighting against astronomical odds to become space-faring.)

The argument the great filter is ahead of us though is based on the observation that even with slower then light spacetravel, over the timeframes of the existing universe a species could still colonize the entire Milky Way in something like a 100,000 years with von Neumann probes (of which organic life would be a good basis for building one).

There should be life everywhere it's possible by technological panspermia - but we don't seem to observe that. What stops elder civilizations from doing this, is the big mystery.

Unless of course, as a poster above notes, if we fire up the JWST and discover chlorophyll-fringes in the spectra of just about every rocky planet we can see. That'd imply a lot.

That is the argument for a filter existing. It says nothing about it's position.

I agree. But I imagine it would help some people get more excited about it.