If we can ever really get beyond this paradigm of advanced cultures
just being versions of us with bigger brains and fancier toys, but beings
who look nothing like us and operate at levels that truly represent and
respect the vastness of the Cosmos, then perhaps we will see that
colonization is not necessarily an option for such beings.

What we might see is the entire galaxy or at least large parts of it
being turned into more parts of the being itself, not some group of
little bugs setting up camp on a terrestrial type world and maybe making
it more homey at best. I am talking megascale engineering projects,
ones that would even dwarf a Dyson Shell.