Take LEO for example. It's a limited resource.

And if you just blunder into it willy nilly and go full colonial mode on it, you could lock yourself out by having just a little war or a lot of capitalism treating it as an externality. Either of which could lead to Kessler.

That would be one form of space based self limiting. You basically create the very trap that keeps you locked on your own planet.

And I get that the limitation doesn't have to be catastrophic. In fact, as a self aware species with a great deal of intelligence and the foreknowledge that actions have consequences, we or other civilizations could possibly make the adjustments necessary to prevent a catastrophic limitation.

But that requires going against the things that got you to that point in the first place (giving up conquering and colonialism to get you out of your biosphere deficit and embracing a lower energy, symbiotic lifestyle...though I'm not sure if that's even an option at this point...i like my lifestyle just as much as the next person).

So it's probably a really tricky spot for most civilizations that get to this point.