Robin Hanson, who invented the term "Great Filter" in the first place, comes back to the topic in his own blog for a look at a couple of neglected aspects of the topic. You can read his whole post here.
One of the key issues he raises is whether or not a given planet (for some reason he uses the term "oasis" in his post) gets more than one try at passing through a given filter, or whether it's all or nothing. This matters because, obviously, if you have enough time and can make enough attempts, eventually you succeed. So, most relevantly, if a planet has the right conditions for life to evolve, complex molecules in its oceans (or on shoreline clay beds, or wherever) can keep bumping into each other and reforming until finally something becomes self-replicating and we're off to the races. That's what he calls a "Try-Try" filter. Failure doesn't prevent you from trying again.
Whereas if a star system doesn't have enough metals to form rocky planets, it doesn't matter how long one waits, it still won't have rocky planets. That one's all or nothing.
The question of trying again until you succeed relates to his second major point, which is that for any given world there is a certain window of time during which life might form. There was a time when Earth was getting pounded by large impacts, when liquid water on the surface was scarce and life impossible. There will be a time when the Sun is too hot and Earth's oceans will boil away. The time between those points is the window during which life can evolve on Earth. So even though life evolving is a "Try-Try" filter, no world gets unlimited tries.
A note on teleology: needless to say, no star system is "trying" to form planets, no planet is "trying" to spawn life, and no life forms are "trying" to become intelligent tool users. Conversational English is a terrible medium for discussing scientific concepts some times.
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