I'm still not clear what constitutes an object/being and what does not. Is a proton an object?
Fundamentally I think you're having an understandably difficult applying a binary classification system (value/not value) to a real continuous system. The continuity of value, where things are valuable based on their degree of sentience, or degree of life which I outlined above resolves this to some extent.
I still don't see how this is fundamentally about altruism. Altruism, loosely defined, is a value system that does not privilege the self over similar beings, but except for very extended definitions of self, that's not what is going on in your example at all. The reason I bring this up is because the difficulty you pose is a difficulty we deal with every day. Your agent is suffering from choosing between many possible futures which all contain some things he/she/it values such that choosing some of those things sacrifices other "valuable" things. I fail to see how this is substantially different than any trip I make to the grocery store. Your concern about animals preying on other animals (A and B are mutually exclusive) seems directly analogous to my decision to buy either name brand Fruit Loops or store brand Color Circles. Both my money, and my preference for Fruit Loops have value, but I have no difficulty deciding that one is more valuable than the other, and I certainly don't give up and burn the store down rather than make a decision.
My main objection to Coherent Extrapolated Volition (CEV) is the "Extrapolated" part. I don't see any reason to trust the extrapolated volition of humanity - but this isn't just for self centred reasons. I don't see any reason to trust my own extrapolated volition. I think it's perfectly possible that my extrapolated volition would follow some scenario like this:
There are many other ways this could go, maybe ending up as a negative utilitarian or completely indifferent, but that's enough to give the flavour. You might trust the person you want to be, to do the right things. But you can't trust them to want to be the right person - especially several levels in (compare with the argument in this post, and my very old chaining god idea). I'm not claiming that such a value drift is inevitable, just that it's possible - and so I'd want my initial values to dominate when there is a large conflict.
Nor do I give Armstrong 7's values any credit for having originated from mine. Under torture, I'm pretty sure I could be made to accept any system of values whatsoever; there are other ways that would provably alter my values, so I don't see any reason to privilege Armstrong 7's values in this way.
"But," says the objecting strawman, "this is completely different! Armstrong 7's values are the ones that you would reach by following the path you would want to follow anyway! That's where you would get to, if you started out wanting to be more altruistic, had control over you own motivational structure, and grew and learnt and knew more!"
"Thanks for pointing that out," I respond, "now that I know where that ends up, I must make sure to change the path I would want to follow! I'm not sure whether I shouldn't be more altruistic, or avoid touching my motivational structure, or not want to grow or learn or know more. Those all sound pretty good, but if they end up at Armstrong 7, something's going to have to give."