Earlier quoted context omitted.
I once tried to take a picture of a deer, that I saw running away from me and hiding behind a tree. I knew perfectly well were it was, in which direction it would go, and had enough time to set my phone's camera properly. And yet, thanks to a slow auto-focus and low light, my pictures ended up a blurry, unrecognizable mess. Not even I would believe my story. I gained a lot of respect that day for people who claim to…
Intelligent Aliens aren’t deer, anyone who has mastered interstellar travel are closer to god’s in terms of the power they’d have over us. No need to hide, and probably impossible to hide their massive power sources.
Is this genuinely the only motivation possible? I'd say that's a lack of imagination.
Scientists exploring animal species also often don't want to disturb their research subject, to avoid changing their behavior. An alien species might have a nonintervention clause akin to Starfleet.
Perhaps even, a certain property of one of our technologies or our culture is somehow dangerous to another species, who might have a philosophical disinclination towards conflict and thus they do not want to disturb us.
Perhaps their gear doesn't have much of a defense system given someone decided to cut some budget somewhere.
Employ a little imagination! It's probably all bunk but it's way more fun to look at news like this that way.