There are civilizations that were around for ages before we made fire in Star Trek, and lots of primitiveraces too. Hell, in Voyager they found a race of Terran dinosaurs that escaped Earth before the asteroid hit. They’re one of the stronger races in their region of space, but are far from top dog in the Quandrant, implying several societies are possibly millions of years old. Not every race will follow a similar tech advancement, but a couple probably do, anyway.
I mean it’s awfully convenient that the sentient species all arose at the same time. There were billions of years of dumb animals.
There are civilizations that were around for ages before we made fire in Star Trek, and lots of primitiveraces too. Hell, in Voyager they found a race of Terran dinosaurs that escaped Earth before the asteroid hit. They’re one of the stronger races in their region of space, but are far from top dog in the Quandrant, implying several societies are possibly millions of years old. Not every race will follow a similar tech advancement, but a couple probably do, anyway.