They really walked into that trap...

From what I recall of previous Star Trek stories involving pre-warp civilizations, the Union doesn't appear to have a practical way of dealing with first contacts without having problems.

More than once, in both Star Trek and other franchises, a smarter way to learn about another society was to spy on them discreetly.

First thing they would do was have a cloaked ship watching at a distance, collecting all the aliens' wireless transmissions and having experts look them over to get some preliminary ideas of the language, the culture, and how things are set up on the planet.

Next, they'd set up a small, cloaked base (like in "Insurrection,") and have either invisible, floating cameras with scanners and microphones, or well-trained spies with personal cloaking devices and wearing cameras on their heads, doing the same thing, and exploring the aliens up close, but not interacting with them at that time. The hands-off approach is key. Discretely gathering literature and the aliens' computer data would also help.

Cultural experts could then construct a [mostly accurate] view of the society, know about the "do's and don'ts," and be ready for first contact, should the people reach out or develop warp drive.

The Orville did none of this, and nearly paid for it with Kelly and Bortus's lives.

Heck, those two scientists on the Upvote/Downvote planet didn't do that either, and one paid for it with his life, while the other got a lobotomy. Nice, huh?