I play a shitload of Stellaris, and oddly enough most of my playthroughs either seem to be as benevolent-ish trade federations or evil megacorps, and also as raid loving spcae Vikings.
Here's an alien first contact scenario that I think is novel and a more lighter example than the one depicted in They Live - What if humanity is contacted by an interstellar civilization that isn't some Star Trek-esque altruistic Federation nor a galactic empire looking to conquer and enslave us but a galactic scale mega corporation/trade federation that is only interested in seeing the Earth as a new emerging market to buy their crap that nobody needs? Having purely capitalist motives and seeing humans as nothing more than new nascent consumers would definitely smooth over diplomatic relations with governments while understandable in human terms, and especially moreso if they're willing to pay a fair prices for resources and willingness to engage in alien foreign investment. The Earth would probably be besieged by alien management consultants trying to make a quick buck, but at least it beats alien armies arriving with dreams of conquest. Also better to be viewed in their eyes as a line in some alien balance sheet under the heading of "new markets" than "new slave worlds". It would be awesome as well if it turns out all galactic civilizations end up developing some form of digital currency tied to energy and it wouldn't be too hard on our end to patch our own cryptocurrencies to use with theirs.
Also the technology and cultural transfer would be massive, especially if their rivals start to show up and sweeten the deal to trade with them.. During the 1800's the Plains Indians would play arms runners against each other to try to get better deals on arms and ammunition if they refused to hand over what they wanted and I could see humans doing the same.