I'm confused by this post, and don't quite understand what its argument is.
Yes, emotional empathy does not optimize effective altruism, or your moral idea of good. But this is true of lots of emotions, desires and behaviors, including morally significant ones. You're singling out emotional empathy, but what makes it special?
If I buy an expensive gift for my father's birthday because I feel that fulfills my filial duty, you probably wouldn't tell me to de-emphasize filial piety and focus more on cognitive empathy for distant strangers. In general, I don't expect you to suggest people should spend all their resources on EA. Usually people designate a donation amount and then optimize the donation target, and it doesn't much matter what fuzzies you're spending your non-donation money on. So why de-fund emotional empathy in particular? Why not purchase fuzzies by spending money on buying treats for kittens, rather than reducing farm meat consumption?
Maybe your point is that emotional empathy feels morally significant and when we act on it, we can feel that we fulfilled our moral obligations. And then we would spend less "moral capital" on doing good. If so, you should want to de-fund all moral emotions, as long as this doesn't compromise your motivations for doing good, or your resources. Starting with most forms of love, loyalty, cleanliness and so on. Someone who genuinely feels doing good is their biggest moral concern would be a more effective altruist! But I don't think you're really suggesting e.g. not loving your family any more than distant strangers.
Maybe your main point is that empathy is a bias relative to your conscious goals:
When choosing a course of action that will make the world a better place, the strength of your empathy for victims is more likely to lead you astray that to lead you truly.
But the same can be said of pretty much any strong, morally entangled emotion. Maybe you don't want to help people who committed what you view as a moral crime, or who if helped will go on to do things you view as bad, or helping whom would send a signal to a third party that you don't want to be sent. Discounting such emotions may well match your idea of doing good. But why single out emotional empathy?
If people have an explicit definition of the good they want to accomplish, they can ignore all emotions equally. If they don't have an explicit definition, then it's just a matter of which emotions they follow in the moment, and I don't see why this one is worse than the others.
Maybe your point is that emotional empathy feels morally significant and when we act on it, we can feel that we fulfilled our moral obligations.
This actually has a name. It's called moral licensing.
Yes, emotional empathy does not optimize effective altruism, or your moral idea of good. But this is true of lots of emotions, desires and behaviors, including morally significant ones. You're singling out emotional empathy, but what makes it special?
I agree with you that nothing makes them special. But you seem to view this as a reductio ad absurdum. Doi...