This is the main reason I’ve never taken the Fermi paradox seriously. I know it’s only supposed to be a thought experiment, but way too many casual readers interpret it as some kind of scientific theory.
There’s no paradox at all when you consider how unlikely it is that another civilization reached the same or similar technology level as us in the exact same microscopically thin slice of time that we’ve had radio. And that’s even ignoring all the problems with detecting an alien radio signal in the first place.
If the rare earth hypothesis is true, which I personally think it is because of how many coincidences it took to make Earth habitable, then I do think they would be interested.
I mean we’d be very interested if we found another Earth-like planet with a civilization on it, so why wouldn’t aliens? Presumably any species capable of that discovery would at least have a need to pursue new knowledge, otherwise they would not be able to advance scientifically.
It’s not about humans being special at all, rather the opposite. Intelligent life is likely to share at least some things in common with us. For example it’s possible that they’re also violent assholes like we are, and destroyed their own planet, so now they a need one and we fit the bill.
If the rare earth hypothesis is false, then things simultaneously become more and less interesting. More interesting in that there’s suddenly a whole galaxy of life-rich planets to explore, less interesting in that there would be nothing rare about an Earth-like planet and aliens may be less interested in us.
But even then, I feel that someone’s going to be interested. We have millions of species on this planet and that doesn’t stop people from looking for new species.