I think I would agree with most of the OP's points. Needs to be much less cash flow and science, that or the research costs need to go up more. They lessen the amount of parts you get for researching certain groups. In my opinion it should be a part by part system anyways.
I really hope they implement something to handle these kind of situations. Here I have been designing all my stages to have safe landings and be recoverable...
If technology throughout the universe never plateaus then trying to stay quiet while developing our own technology makes no sense because any other beings out there who are ahead will always be ahead. So whether we notify other beings about our existence with radio signals or by warping into one of their star systems makes no difference. If they exist at a higher tech than us and have an interest in our destruction then it will happen sooner or later anyways.
I would not say we are withing reach of warp drives now, the testing is all theoretical still, based on theoretical fuels. But 2114, I think we might be launching our first interstellar missions.