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The Drake Equation is perfectly reasonable. You just have to interpret it as “these assumptions imply aliens” rather than “there are definitely aliens.”

It is not, because at least 3 factors of the equation are incredibly difficult to estimate. About as difficult as estimating the probability of an alien encounter. So the equation is basically useless.

And what’s the term for a figure that’s hard to estimate but which you guess at anyway? An “assumption.”

Yes, and in this case, an unreasonable one.

The Drake Equation doesn't imply anything about the number of aliens in the universe, you can get any answer you want by putting in values for each of the factors.

I think the Drake equation is fine if you accept that even von Neumann probes are basically impossible to achieve. Space is simply too hard for everything.

I think you misspelled “hypothesis.”