Funny, I just posted a shorter and less-specific discussion post for largely the same reason - my perception that LW is abandoning addressing these problems, in favor of rationality techniques.

My impression is that that was Eliezer's intention from the start. And, I love the idea of rationality bootcamp.

Michael Vassar has put a lot more thought into what SIAI should do now than I have, and I'm not going to disagree with him. Addressing this requires a financial analysis, not just picking what you think is the biggest problem and going straight at it. My impression is that SIAI operates like a college, which pays for operating expenses (neglecting grants and donations) by taking in a large number of undergraduates, in order to fund the work of grad students and professors.

I think LW is not going to be the place where we tackle these problems. That place does not yet exist. And I think LW should not be the place where we tackle these problems. It has already converged on a strong local attractor of opinion which it cannot escape from. It is too strongly-affiliated with a small number of people with largely similar viewpoints. We need some random restarts.

(I think the last 3 paragraphs of OP should be a separate post; their position at the conclusion of the post distracts greatly from the focus of the first part.)