My western civilization arrogance

I went to visit Peru for the first time two weeks ago. It was not the trip I dreamed as a child, of exploring the Andes to get to the lost city of Machu Picchu. I went there by bus like hundredths of others and our local guides. It was not exploring. It was just like being taken to see what they think it is more important, no chance to just wander around and find something interesting. I guess that when tourism is such an important economic activity in the country, that's how it goes. Don't get me wrong, the place is amazingly beautiful and one can still feel the magic left behind from the Incas. However, somehow, I ended believing the biggest adventure I had in the trip was using the "Kombis" to get from Callao to the centre of Lima. There it was the only place I felt like part of the city and I could choose to look wherever I wanted. There was no one to blind me in a direction.
I learned a lot about the Incas with the guides. Maybe more than I would have learned if I went there to explored by myself, but ...
I "explored" the mystical lake Titicaca and its islands where people still insist to live as some pre-inca civilizations, or almost like that. It is kind of amazing some of the things they do with so little. like building their own islands every year because that's how long they last. They preserve all the mores from before and they show it to tourists for some money. However, they live in such hard conditions, such poverty, with lack of opportunities, structure, and all of the facilities we have in our western world. Is this really a way worth living to keep some culture from some many years before? It makes me wonder if they really have a quality of life over there. Is it my arrogance to think that the way we live is better and that they should long for it? If they are so glad to keep living like this why do they beg us tourists to buy their crafts so they can have money? My arrogance of thinking I have a better life makes me pity them.
More than anything, instead of exploring the knowledge and places, I felt like being explored and exploring people that could have better opportunities if it wasn't for showing a culture to tourists that are just amazed to get to know people living like if it was hundredths of years ago. A privilege only people living in some more modern cultures can have.