Kind of makes me nervous that both black holes we've imaged are pointing right at us. I'm imagining some super advanced civilization somehow using black holes as powerful telescopes that are for some reason intent on mapping out our region of space. I know M87 is 55 million light years away, so that makes no sense, but I'd really like to see some black holes that are looking in some other direction.

Is it at all possible that the glow is more of a spherical cloud and the black spot would be visible from any angle you look at it?