I also posited that the Voth may have travelled to the DQ at sublight throughout untold generations and using relativity.
They could have spent hundreds of thousands of years in transit with passage of time slower inside the ships, but faster on the outside (occasionally stopping in some systems to resupply, etc.), and might not have settled in the DQ until a few thousand years ago (before encountering VOY for the first time). And their Doctrine can easily explain why they had such long periods of non-advancement. The TW development was accidental and then even more time passed before they incorporated it.
UFP has little to no such cultural hangups and is comprised of over 150 different member planets that have how many alien species part of it contributing to technological and scientific advancement?
The technological and social foundation alone from which the UFP started and is working vs the Voth is incomparable. The UFP would have technically reached (if not surpassed) the Voth's level by the time VOY encountered them.
I hope this question is taken as intended - genuine and with intruige.
Obviously you have very strong feelings on where technological advancement should be at various periods within Trek, and also note certain technologies that should be in place.
To me it feels very definitive, considering it is based on extrapolations of fictional technologies and unknown events in universe.
So my question to you (and I will hope you forgive me for asking you do this in the simplest possible terms and assuming little to no prior knowledge) is what you base your assessments on? Does it come from the litverse? Are there technologies under development now and real world projected technologies that are guiding your opinions? What are your overall parameters for building your tech timeline?
I hope this makes sense