So maybe we are occasionally prey, but I doubt we are systematically being farmed or hunted by an alien civilization. I think the anthropologist explanation is more likely... they have a rule to not interfere too much and spoil the natural progression of things or give us too much too quickly.
I am not so sure, but I do hope you are right. While I think the Star Trek Prime Directive is a noble ideal it is also a bit naive in that the notion of 'natural progression' can be taken to mean something quite bizarre - that is the idea that evolution is always internally driven. There is, I think, no evidence for this. Rather, history seems to propose that we evolve via response to external factors, often threats that can lead to trauma.
I am not even sure I would accept that a benevolent influence would not support change that is traumatic in nature and extent. That would rule out most acts of 'colonisation' perpetrated by Europeans upon the rest of the planet - and pretty much most of history as we know it.
It is true that there is evidence of persistent trauma experienced by indigenous peoples who were/are subject to a fairly callous and arrogant overlordship by invaders/colonists. The indigenous peoples of North America, Australia and New Zealand tell us something important about traumatically disrupting deeply grounded life ways.
It could be argued that the aggressive spirit of the English is a persistence of trauma initiated by the Romans and Vikings, and people of Anglophone countries are heirs to that trauma - expressed in our economics, government, culture and even religion.
The post Enlightenment growth of science and technology is characterised by a lack of empathy, and an abandonment of the animistic principle that once permeated human consciousness. A trauma legacy?
There are clear indications that beings from other dimensions, and maybe ET as well, are inherently animistic. I think that science and technology must inevitably lead back in that direction. So maybe the alleged contacts between ET and the Deep State are driving through a morally repugnant level to some deeper set of values?
But then I see that ET (whatever they are) are also multilayered and I think back to the explorers/colonialists of the 16th to 19th centuries, who had a spectrum of motives. I think we are being roughly handled, but not necessarily cruelly so. But I do not pretend to know any details. But what I do see is about 250 years of radical change that has nothing natural about it. Compared to the preceding 7 millennia this has been supercharged. And in it all the influence of non-terrestrial agents has been implicit.
It has really only been since the 1950s that ET has become a player in our consciousness. Is this just an alignment with tech and communication systems? Seventy years on and we have passed through a period of transformative technological development that is clearly rooted in military research (and others in back engineering of UFOs). If you are not old enough you will not get just how radical this development is.
This period of change we are in is neither 'natural' nor gentle. I think it is induced, hard, harsh and I hope one day it will back off. I can't say ET is driving it, but they are certainly a factor. Is there a governing wisdom behind it all? I know there are compassionate spirits of wisdom who see it all as something from which good will come - but that does not mean what is happening is necessary, good or desirable. It is what it is.
I do not know if ET is benevolent, so much as simply not cruel. I had what I think now was an abduction experience that was utterly terrifying. And when I tried to follow it up I was subjected to quite explicit threats. That could have been to protect me psychologically, or it could have been to deny me knowledge.
For me there is a field of what I might best call inter-dimensional politics that we have not explored or consolidated an understanding about. Are we being aided, managed, manipulated, exploited, preyed upon? Maybe all of the above. I don't know. I don't have any firm opinions. I know a lot of folk have strong opinions, but I don't trust people with strong opinions to have thought through what they believe sufficiently. if they did they would not be so passionate about what they believe.
I'd like to think there are benign anthropologists zapping around the cosmos. But then I recall the human materialistic and politicised anthropologists, and hope that ET has progressed to a less toxic perception, rather than just doing the same crap with better tech.