A fair point, but even though we assume time and space are massive, there is an ordering to things.
There is a day before a civilization decides to kill it’s neighbors, and a day after.
We can assume the state of things (big old space should have had that plot arc already) but we can’t know if we are still in the opening episode, or before it.
Regarding general silence, agree that is not answered by my discussion. I personally lean more towards x factors disturbing our assumptions. (I.e. long running biospheres with zero advancement to radio age) but I increasingly wonder if we are just early to the party, as egotistical as that sounds. Imagine that the civilization that will one day rule the galaxy / universe is just now figuring out how to make a basic tool?