The point of the equation is to identify the parameters. It does that just fine. People trying to use it to solve unsolvable problems are the cause of their own frustration. In a sense, the equation tells us that it’s not a problem we can come close to solving with the amount of data on hand, or that can be expected to be on hand at any forseeable point in the future.
Basically, it’s a warning not to go down the very rabbit hole the author went down. Some things shouldn’t be taken 100% literally and the Drake Equation is one of them.
It has the added bonus of re-enforcing the image of a nuclear boogieman.