Why has life evolved around oxygen?
I think you need to consider that oxygen is toxic to large groups of microorganisms, because it poisons their electron transport chains. 

Strict anaerobes does not tolerate the presence of oxygen at all and as such I would argue that life can survive and thrive without O2.

Also life on earth evolved under conditions were O2 levels were extremely low, in fact when some organisms started to release oxygen into the atmosphere it caused an extinction event (Great Oxygenation Event).

So I think you need to change your question to why did life adapt to the presence of oxygen?