You make the decision to send the resources necessary to transform a galaxy without knowing much about the galaxy. The only things you know are based on the radiation that you can pick up many light years away.
Once you have sent your vehicle to the galaxy it could of course decide to do nothing or fly into the sun but that would be a waste of resources.
I don’t think that there’s a way to “pay attention” that’s significantly cheaper then converting galaxies.
I think converting galaxies already includes paying attention, since if you don’t know what’s there it’s difficult to change it into something else.
Maybe you’re thinking of this as though it were a fire that just burned things up, but I don’t think “converting galaxies” can or will work that way.
You make the decision to send the resources necessary to transform a galaxy without knowing much about the galaxy. The only things you know are based on the radiation that you can pick up many light years away.
Once you have sent your vehicle to the galaxy it could of course decide to do nothing or fly into the sun but that would be a waste of resources.