When doing science, it's also important to have independent, labs validating and invalidating research. If all research is ultimately all funded by the same source, the government, science is suspect. NASA is suspect.

Take NASA SETI project 1992. They, assumedly, were looking for alien radio tech signatures. I have a letter from NASA (1999) statinging they weren't looking aliens, and in the same letter lamented that Congress was cutting their budget. I guarantee you if they did the science the public wanted, there would be no funding issues. Americans would pay for the next Mars rover if NASA would land it in Cydonia and prove once and for all that's not a face or pyramid.

ALso note that Carl Sagan wrote the first ancient alien theory to be published in which he recommended don't use radio telescopes but look to history, as the Sumerian culture is likely first contact, but saying that would have robbed funding the SETI project and so they got him in line, too.

Mind you, this is not a theoretical conversation. Scientist needing more computer processing time created SETI@HOME screen saver thinking only a few people would be willing to look for aliens. MILLIONS of people volunteered their computer time. I was one of those people. I devoted old computers to helping SETI@HOME look for aliens signatures. PEOPLE want to do science. Scientist don't want to look into the things we want to investigate. So many people volunteered for SETI@HOME that they ran out of raw data and started duplicating the batch work, which has ultimately led to mathematician working for the EU Space agency to tease out a signal, which led to Project Breakthrough. (Thank you science filmmaker formerly known as the Professor, Simon Holland for discussing real science.)

Meanwhile, WE THE PEOPLE are hungry to do science. Why did we get rid of screen savers and SETI@HOME??? Because the people would have found evidence for aliens life before any of the scientists that are bought and paid for, and who now scrambling to be the first one to announce what most people outside of academics have known for years: we're not alone.

I really wish you would complement John E Mack when people ask you these 'hard' questions. If not for John E Mack, a previous Harvard Chair Holder in Psychiatrics who said people aren't crazy for believing in aliens, paving the way for you to say Oumuamua was aliens, Harvard might have come for your tenured position. You, me, and all of us, are still residing on the backs of giants.