I could see that as an RPG’s original setting and its expansion supplement.
FWIW, there was a short story I read YEARS ago that was a take on the first idea. Humanity expanded into the galaxy in 2 directions, encountering no other sentient life. Then, after thousands of years of expansion, both frontiers reported First Contact!
The reveal: the frontiers had actually encountered each other on the other side of the galaxy, closing the circle. The extreme isolation of the twin frontiers had caused genetic, cultural, technological and linguistic drift so immense that neither exploration group could recognize each other as human.