EA tend to be a bunch of intellectual windbags, by and large, and overestimate their impact on the world at every level it's possible to do so. Just because they collectively gasped and claimed responsibility doesn't mean their interpretation has anything to do with reality.
The reality is SBF was a con man, and however complex his motivations and personality and psychological issues, whatever his ultimate intent, he willfully scammed a lot of money from a lot of people. EA might have been an influence, but SBF is a human with complex agency whose actions can't and shouldn't be reduced to membership or association with a community.
Going from "here's a set of good ideas about how to effectively give to charity, since we see a lot of corruption and inefficiency in charities" to "we have a moral duty to ensure that we only associate with good people" is how you go from a good idea to a pompous internet cult.
The reality is SBF was a con man, and however complex his motivations and personality and psychological issues, whatever his ultimate intent, he willfully scammed a lot of money from a lot of people. EA might have been an influence, but SBF is a human with complex agency whose actions can't and shouldn't be reduced to membership or association with a community.
Going from "here's a set of good ideas about how to effectively give to charity, since we see a lot of corruption and inefficiency in charities" to "we have a moral duty to ensure that we only associate with good people" is how you go from a good idea to a pompous internet cult.