Aliens as modern mythology/gods/spirits
As a college professor once said to me, aliens are humanity's latest incarnation of the gods, spirits, and such of old.
They also make great fronts for exploring modern human issues such as racism, etc. Remember the series Alien Nation?
Of course this should not detract us from the fact that real ETI are out there somewhere and they have their own lives, culture, etc. We just need to keep searching for them.