[Mark Walton]

A few comments:

Races which choose Ancient Race have spent 1000 on something which everyone will get eventually. Ancient races can't go into higher levels of alliance, without giving their advantage away to other races.

The ability to get extra tech from ruins is part of what they are paying for, and having more tech is part of what makes them an "ancient race" in my view.

You could of course mod your system generation to put more ruins "behind" hidden sectors - as I am doing in my mod as the "research" element. (This mod WILL be finished and released one day, soon, )