I’m wondering if it’s pseudo religious with humans being created in God’s image (Ancient Aliens stuff), the human-centric idea that intelligent life must resemble us, it being easy to make costumes for movies and TV when all you need to do is paint someone’s skin, or if SciFi writers were going for the uncanny valley effect for example.
May I suggest Solaris by Stanislaw Lem? The alien is a sentient ocean that doesn’t understand the distinction between past, present, or future, or between dreaming and wakefulness. It causes some issues…
Also Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir: Great book about communicating with species that differs from humans in almost every possible way.
Yep, it’s a great book for sure.