What are the reason to consider that close encounters are part of a physical exploration of the Earth?
I propose that, admitting extraterrestrial presence would have as goal a physical survey of the Earth, there might be no encounter at all, as encounter is probably not required for a physical survey. The reason can then be formulated as "admitting an extraterrestrial presence on Earth, the goal is not necessarily a physical survey," and I do not think there are any reason yet to come to the idea that we could possibly conceive the goals and the methods to reach these goals that any extraterrestrial presence might have.
I have no underlying facts or figures indicating that close encounters are far more numerous than required for a physical survey of the Earth, as I have no underlying facts or figures of any sort of reliability to estimate the number of close encounters. I do not even see data to evaluate the number of admitted "true" close encounters against the number or "alleged" close encounters. I propose than before speculating on such numbers, they must be evaluated correctly. As for now, depending on the source, there is a general belief that most if not all close encounters are not due to any extraterrestrial presence, and thus my opinion is that there are very few true cases of close encounters where the best or only possible explanation is that of an encounter with a non terrestrial intelligence.
