Marlow Stanfield
Superstar
This doesn't pan-out as it assumes an advanced civilization is curious enough and has resources to accomplish exploration. Since space is so big, those resources would be rapidly depleted on fruitless searches and failed missions.
Scientific research also suffers from the same issue as the vast majority is a wasted effort. They may not even regard 'science' the same as we do.
You're 'humanizing' beings that are not human at all, but this is all PURE speculation.
But your assumption that they consume resources for said space exploration does? This assumes that they're burning some kind of fuel to propel their ships when we could be talking about space bugs who get energy from eating rocks or absorbing star radiation. There are an unknown number of 'resources' out there.
Secondly, "wasted effort" is merely your perception of research and exploration. Chances are, an alien race with the ability to find and travel to Earth have amassed a knowledge and understanding of the universe so great no human could comprehend it. They would be far and away beyond us. Hence, why we would be insects in comparison.
We can't even get past, "Why women don't deserve anything."