I could not agree more.
I don't want to provide a quote that can be taken out of context, but the Drake Equation strongly supports the idea of intelligent life occurring elsewhere in our galaxy. An extraordinarily small chance event will eventually occur if you roll the dice enough times. That said, space is big, and the odds that humanity will ever encounter intelligent life are doomed by our understanding of physics*, and the same vast numbers that make life somewhere, sometime likely. Faster than light travel would change things somewhat, but...
My personal theory (supported by the energy requirements associated with interstellar travel) is that any first contact event is going to be apparent worldwide and traumatic for humanity at best, like Cortez arrival in Mexico. The idea that aliens would travel however far and spend quite a bit of effort avoiding notice just to play peek-a-boo games is hard to support.