Maybe spreadsheets are some kind of inevitable entity that has transcended from its physical form. The consequence of existence is spreadsheets. It's a virus that has infected reality, and every part of it pursues the spreadsheet. It's why we haven't met any aliens, once a locality creates spreadsheets, then there is no stable higher order to achieve, without a directive, the underlying drives that built the structures to support the development of spreadsheets become vestigial, and the civilization eventually collapses.