Re:UFO’s
I don’t think that’s arrogant. I truly believe we (as a planet, not as a race of humans) don’t have anything useful to offer a spacefaring race. If there are other life forms out there (which there must be) and if they are space or dimension travelers (maybe, maybe not), compared to other planets and bodies in this solar system, the Earth isn’t the best choice for exploration. It doesn’t have anything to do with having humans on it or not. With or without us Earth doesn’t have much to offer.
There are other planets which are richer in base elements than our planet, and which aren’t (that we know of) infested with critters that would need to be exterminated. The asteroid belt would be easier to mine and it would be more efficient to get water from a comet or from H and O than the surface of a planet with an atmosphere (assuming they needed any).
But, in my view a spacefaring race stepping into this solar system would be more interested in keeping their technology going and gathering information on natural resources. Unfortunately that view is based on [i]human[/i] history sending out explorers to find new resources, then followed by merchants, then pirates, then by scientists studying the local lab rats once the piracy is quashed and the shipping lanes are safe.
There’s no way to know how [i]alien[/i] history and psychology might be different, but that’s my only logical point of reference so that’s what I go with. They could just as easily send the scientists in first to study the lab rats, either as a food source or to check for disease, but it seems more logical to me (keeping in mind my only point of reference is that of a non-spacefaring creature 😉 ) they would just mine around us and freak us out terribly before showing any interest in us as biological specimens.