Yeah sorry about #2. Some was lost in autocorrect.

Here rephrased: 2. Did they actually buy into the Prime Directive? If they did, wouldn’t they mostly rely on drones or cloaking tech so they’d never be discovered in the first place, if they go where no man has gone before? Otherwise, they’d just paint a target on their backs for more violent species looking to take advantage of them or their technology. Like “Look, there is species #73647 (i don’t want to name your civilization), they have super technology but won’t strike back, we just take what we want, no counter attacks!” That could even lead to a story about a century-long space blockade of their home planet: The attacker try to hunger them out. Because their shields are impenetrable. But maybe the planet is a facsimile, an empty place to lure malevolent species away from the true home planet.