I think it might be more for a select group of people. In the LW community, I have gotten the impression that existential risk is higher status than global poverty reduction - that's definitely the opinion of the high status people in this community. And maybe for the specific kind of nonconformist nerd who reads Less Wrong and is likely to come across this post, transhumanism and existential risk reduction has a "coolness factor" that global poverty reduction doesn't have.

You're definitely right about the wider world, but many people might only care about the opinions of the 100 or so members of their in-group.