I would benefit from seeing a clear distinction made in these discussions between two different questions about moral progress:

1) Have moral intentions improved? Does a typical person educated in an advanced society have better moral intentions (never mind outcomes) than a typical person educated in a backward society?

2) Have moral outcomes improved? Are there in aggregate more moral events and less immoral events (never mind intentions) now than previously?

Of course there is no consensus on what "moral" means in either of these questions. I think Pinkerian "amount of violence" is a pretty good proxy for 2), but not for 1).