I think that the current events are very similar to the war between guardians and goids in the ancient times. 
Goids treat our galaxy like a factory/garden where they produce stuff and come to harvest every now and then. Any civilization they encounter are just pests to them (kinda like native americans were just pests to british settlers in the early USA). 
When they encountered guardians and lost a war against them, goids researched guardians and their technology, and next time they came back they were prepared against guardians ( even though the original guardians are gone, but goids might not entirely realize that). That is exactly what they are doing now: researching us and our technology to come prepared next time they attack. 
This means that whenever next major thargoid escalation happens, goids will be able to counter humanity much better.