"That is to say that the mechanism that caused the first life forms to exist has no bearing on the mechanism by which those imperfect replicators branched off into diverse species, or, in clearer terms, evolution doesn't depend on life originating from any specific method."
that is all I'm getting at. THat there is a possibility that an Intelligent Designer (not like Ralph Lauren) or God created or initiated the originating replicator.
Indeed there is. No-one is denying that possibility is true. But it has nothing to do with the theory of evolution, which is how bio-diversity arose once the first life appeared. Science tends to prefer natural solutions since they are the only things that science can test, but at the moment science has no firmly evidenced natural solution that describes how abiogenesis occurred. OTOH science has clearly observed mechanisms for evolution after that point.