Exactly this. I was thinking about this the other day and using the web as a metaphor (bear with me). It's easy to know where to go next when we only have one

Exactly this. I was thinking about this the other day and using the web as a metaphor (bear with me). It's easy to know where to go next when we only have one option to pursue (such as travelling to the next nearest planet or star). This is a lot like the early web when there were only a handful of interesting sites and discovering new cool sites was a goal in and of itself. Today, I think we intuitively understand that there's no longer any value in trying to visit every website on the internet. Most sites offer zero value or even net negative value. The entire problem space pivots to one of knowing which 0.00001% of websites are valuable to a given situation. When a civilization gains the ability to visit any planetary system, the problem shifts to one of filtering choices and information to minimize the amount of unnecessary travel or world-settling. I assume this is a well-known concept. I'd love to read more if anybody knows what it's called.