Probably the most interesting question from the comments: "How important is the time gap of interstellar travel?"

The information we gather today about the state of the universe is terribly "out of date" considering we are looking into the past. If we found a pale blue dot, it could be gone by the time we could manage to get there. Alternatively, there may be one in the making that we don't recognize but would be habitable by the time we made it there. We should solve the FTL travel problem first. :)