My CMDR's head is spinning as well. He's an analytical, logical, measured type. Coming up with a next something is pretty tough right now. Still in the process of assessing where we are and (of course) what happenend (in the grand scheme, not just the events that we all know). As you may have gleaned from my recent posts, I too am thinking that this was no surprise to our intended targets. That we are being monitored, I think is likely.
What I can't figure out how to determine is: By who? By more than one species? I certainly can't ignore that possibility.* We now have a third relic or tech-fragment of some sort to add to our puzzle. What are these? What do they do? What are they for? Besides using them as 'keys' to unlock a tidbit of tech info (blueprint fragments), we haven't gleaned much - and that's only regarding one of these curiosities.
Even if the permit-locked regions are a way to funnel us thru travel lanes that allow for easier monitoring,** I think it's pretty clear that our use of relics and tech of others also provides a convenient mechanism for that to happen, especially when (as we're all-too-likely to do), we collect a bunch of them. No question that we attract attention. Our presumptions of who's watching - based upon who always shows up in response - may have been too simplistic. *We as a species also have the faulty tendency to assume, when we "discover" an answer, that that's the one, and ignore the possibility that there's ANOTHER. Uh oh!
If you have an image of one of the structures to help CMDRs visualize what you're proposing, that could be helpful. At this point, any aid to help us focus our thoughts is likely useful...
EDIT:
** This permit-locking is done by the Pilot's Federation, or am I mistaken? It finds its way into every one of our flight systems, built-in by every ship manufacturer somehow, very effectively blocking us from those areas of space with seemingly no hack to get around it. Even the Scriveners who have developed tech away from the rest of us don't have access to those areas (we don't think). It makes you wonder about a few things including who they are or who's moving their hand to implement this (referring to the PF).