the episode did not even need the aliens running things behind the scenes, it would have been perfectly fine to just have the spatial anomaly and a crash landing as the setup.

I think having the Metron running things behind the scenes helped a bit. I did a huge eye roll when there just happened to be a recently-occupied tent within walking distance from the crash site on a desolate moon, given the vastness of space this is so ridiculous (not that it stopped Star Trek or other sci-fi before).