I expect non-biological life will replace us quickly on geological timescales. It has too many potential advantages. It will also spread to other planets more quickly for the same reasons.

IMO this notion seems obvious, but it isn’t popular.

What benefits does the biological bring to the mix?

I disagree actually, feel like instead of bio life vs non bio life in future we will move more toward a synthesis of the two

I feel more it’s a back and forth. Biology as a science today is treated like a younger sibling that’s not ready to sit at the big kids table, yet

I do think that it will be more of a dance, and also a merger of non-biological and biological life mimicking each other until we can’t tell the difference anymore

It’s seemed obvious to me as well since I read Ray Kurzweil’s 'The Age of Spiritual Machines' and Ed Regis’ 'The Great Mambo Chicken' circa 2000. Both laid the foundations for transhumanism, a central tenet of which is that the next evolution of man will be technological, and not biological.

fwiw The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz runs with this idea, out about 60,000 years iirc. eg Scrubjay, a sentient flying train ftw