The assumptions that I criticize may be providing a lot of the motivation, but you can think that e.g. solving the problem of ethical stability under self-modification is important, without believing that stuff; and meanwhile, a lot of people must be encountering the concept of Friendly AI as part of a package which includes the futurist maximalism and the peculiar metaphysics. I suppose I'm saying that Friendly AI needs to be saved from the subculture that most vigorously supports it, because it contains ideas that really are important.