It's also important to keep in mind that this depressing perspective is a contemporary, anthropomorphic one.

It might be the case that communications using electromagnetic radiation are an unremarkable blip on the timeline of technological progress. The modern era has only been in full-swing for a paltry few hundred years!

I like to think that the size and scope of the universe suggests that there absolutely are many many ways to travel and communicate faster than light (and presumably well beyond), that we haven't even imagined yet. Zoom out enough, and any speed or distance scale appears tiny.