Good answer.

I like to think it's the early game in some sense. Or atleast, we are too small // un-teched to recognize the signs of other civs out in the universe. TBF, my astronomy is pretty weak right now, I'm not sure what our range limits are for detecting ET life tells with our current tech (city lights being on at night, etc).

The question also makes me think of the Bob-iverse book series. It's a Human Emotions Von Neuman probe that goes on adventures. You'd think something like a von Neuman Probe would survive from ET civs. Even if the civ did not make it.

For all we know, maybe the Vulcans are waiting until we reach Warp 3 before they will consider us worth openly engaging with.

Stay Saucy 🖖