SETI and its primitive search for Extraterrestrial life

A  story came my way about possible radio signals coming from a planet in our galaxy – no, it wasn’t Proxima Centauri b, the closest exoplanet with the possibility, some say, for extraterrestrial life.
 
This may be the story. ( I should have paid more attention to it.)
 
https://earthsky.org/space/weird-radio-waves-from-milky-way-center-askap-j173608-2-321635/
 
This led me to question SETI’s approach to discovering radio signals from space that suggest advanced extraterrestrial life.
 
That word “advanced” takes me aback.
 
Radio signals? An advanced means to send signals?
 
Isn’t this a rather primitive way to emit messages for transmission to other civilizations?
 
I have a dozen papers about signal transmission cluttering my computer, and radio signals are at the lower end of transmittal technology, laser, photonics, electro-magnetism (for you E-M fans), et ceteraoffering other ways to sending signals, to space or anywhere.
 
Thus, getting a radio signal from a planet far away in the cosmos would tell us that the planet’s civilization is little better than ours when it comes to technology.
 
I like the SETI operation but it strikes me as Victorian in nature, a quaint approach to a scientific endeavor that should be a little more futuristic.