My vote is the images are also consistent with some sort of seasonal subsurface brine squishing out and about.
And fungi are genetically very complex compared to what Occam is apt to offer first.
They would probably not be the beginning of life on Mars, but the last to turn off the light.
We also assume that the 'fungus' seen here has any genetic similarity to fungus on Earth. It could be quite different, only seeming similar because of convergent evolution[1].