We Can Only See The Cretaceous Period
Another possible reason why we have never had Direct Meetings With Aliens may have to do with the speed of light and looking. If we looked through a telescope we would possibly only see the time of life, if there is any, when it was at its cretaceous period and not as it is now. It might be the same for intelligent life out there looking our way. They may still be seeing dinosaurs.
Everything is relatively speaking. Depends how far you are looking into space. Obviously the further you are looking, the farther in time you are looking.
If we are looking in are 'neighborhood' and not millions of light years away, then we will be more in the same 'timezone'.