I guess the connection would be human history, a dark forest is a scene of lawlessness and violence and danger in much of that history - at least where stories are concerned.

In the use of the phrase Dark Forest to explain the Fermi paradox it suggests that alien civilizations have kept themselves dark out of fear that the rest of the forest is actually lawless and violent.

In this case though we are entering a dark forest, like Hansel and Gretel, supposedly defenseless against the monsters that lurk in there, but really - they weren't that defenseless were they? I don't think the phrase that apt.