This is a good take.

Maybe they didn’t expect no answer and they are just meh at programming.

I’m pretty sure Spock actually said this and this is the way I always understood it. Spock went on a hunch that it wasn’t intentionally destroying the planet, it was a byproduct of looking for the whales. Maybe it had to look harder than expected and turned up the transmit power which is why things got weird.

“Hell of a way to say hello.” - Bones, probably.

Edit: Yeah, “I find it illogical that its actions would be hostile.”

Second edit: I just saw a thread the other day about the weakest sonar pings from Navey subs being strong enough to vaporize people’s insides. Context I guess.