I believe I've seen every TNG episode at least once, and that's not ringing any bells. Maybe it was an original series episode? Despite my best efforts, I haven't been able to make it through more than one or two episodes of the original.

Shaka, when the walls fell?

I recall that episode, but I'm not sure that's what they were referencing.

“Darmok” is Internet favorite, about a species which language is exclusively in analogy that the translator could not be set up, and they decide to kidnap Picard to establish vocabulary over a campfire.

There were couple episodes in Voyager in which aliens deem humans interesting but lesser, and tries to experiment or study on crews. One that I remember ended up in a ship self destruction, in another the doctor leaving his copy. As to why they didn’t simply ask Borg for a zipped archive, I don’t know.

The Dominion commanders throughout DS9 must have made similar remarks, and so should Cardassians have. Q would outright say so in spite, corrupted Data might. Maybe combination of those? Or maybe I’m just a suboptimal Trekkie :p

You are a great Trekkie, I must have been dreaming

The one with the Sheliak?

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/The_Ensigns_of_Command_...

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Sheliak

I'm not them, but this is it. Their government is called the Sheliak Corporate, and Picard finds in the overly long treaty a clause about resolving disputes needing a third party - and names a species currently in hibernation. So they give in and let him have the much shorter time he's being asking for, for an evacuation.

Was it the episode in which the federation needed more time to evacuate a colony and the other party refused because the treaty left no room to interpret it like that?

If I remember correctly, the crew found a loophole using a rule that allowed them to ask for arbitration - they asked for an arbiter from a species that was currently in rather long hibernation.