If aliens came to Earth and everyone knew absolutely nothing would change

Nope. The religious people would go nuts.

But they’d still go to work and pay their bills

They'd bring technology, knowledge and spiritual evolution.
In fact they already do, and spiritually speaking, we're toddlers compared to them. At least those advanced enough to be able to transmit messages to us, and no, they don't transmit anything physically, that would take impossible amounts of time.