You have no true friends, and usually no faux ones, either. They will all lie to you to get what they want. It's you or them ... do you want to win or not? In the end, there can be only one ...
Even if you want to build stuff, and not care about "winning" the game, remember ... you build nothing if your are conquered. And the AI's will do just that, if they can.
You say, that is a sad view of the universe.
Works for me.
(I think it may actually be harder to survive the game not as #1, but as a respectable civ that has built stuff, then as a conquerer. It is however, perhaps more WORK to conquer the world. Still, to win on culture you have to defend your culture- and sometimes the best defense is to crush the enemy before they can crush you.)
I think you can figure out how I voted.