Hmm maybe. If anything, I don’t think it would be killing for competition. Killing a planet is “easy” if you can expend the energy. The risk of accidentally off

Hmm maybe. If anything, I don’t think it would be killing for competition. Killing a planet is “easy” if you can expend the energy. The risk of accidentally offending another civilization is much easier, offending them to the point of them wanting to wipe you out isn’t that much harder (see Earth History). Thus, it almost makes sense to just wipe out any civilization preemptively.