I feel like the way to approach this prompt isn't really with tackling being a spacefaring race but all the other things we've done with mathematics.

Cryptography and encryption, data and signal processing, computer science, silicon-based AI and neural nets, all of that also requires math and it's conceivable that other species wouldn't go down the information technology route since it's possible that they never develop the need to. A good example of an alternate reality where our level of math didn't materialize is the Fallout universe where they practically never went past vacuum tube technology for things so information technology isn't as advanced as our microchip-laden world today. Sure they have advanced tech in other ways but it's not ubiquitous to the point of mundanity like us.

A prompt could then tackle for example a race that only needed the math to do orbital mechanics but only ever used light signals and other forms of simple visual communication that aren't very information dense vs us who can beam down images and video from probes all the way from Pluto.