This is along the lines of a solution I propose to the Fermi paradox.

If we fuck up the planet or ourselves, having already gone through most of the readily available materials necessary for tech… yep, you get caught in an extremely slow tech tree grind after that.

If that kind if thing is common (our only example of civilization tech progression is ourselves), then it would not be surprising to me if there are many alien worlds with sapient life, but theyre basically the equivalent of Stellaris Primitives on Tomb Worlds.