Illustrating the burden of proof - pay me!

[GrandizerII]

The question could (and would) be repeated in the case of a multiverse as well.  It's a throwaway objection at any rate.

If we are genuinely concerned about arbitrary or accidental whatsits - then we would be concerned about those issues in any context they present themselves.  If we're unconcerned about the arbitrary or accidental nature of a god or a god made universe, we are not genuinely concerned with the real, perceived, or asserted arbitrary or accidental nature of a physical model either.

If a multiverse exists, perhaps it couldn’t have existed in any form other than the form it’s manifestly in.

Even with a multiverse, you could still ponder whether it could've had more or less universes than whatever number of universes it contains. In the case of a multiverse with infinite number of universes, you could still ponder a different collection of infinite universes. I think if you want to go with the route of physical reality being metaphysically necessary, you'd have to go with a radical view of modality. For example, the ultimate multiverse, however it may manifest, in which all [metaphysical] possibilities are realized, no exception. That way, it seems not so compelling to ask the question "why this rather than that" because why have an incomplete multiverse instead of a complete one?

The same could be said about this universe. I don’t personally find “it appears that way,” to be all that persuasive of a reason to take one position over the other.

Well, we can imagine a universe in place of this with slightly different initial conditions leading to a slightly different universe from this one. If we can imagine such an alternative with relative ease, and we don't have persuasive reasons to think that such an alternative is metaphysically impossible, then ...? Seems easier to go with contingent in this case, rather than necessitarianism.

Anyway, no matter what approach one takes, you're still going to end up with something that's never going to be 100% satisfactory. This includes theistic views as well. Contingent or necessary, God or multiverse or sole universe, there is some brute fact we end up having to grapple with here.