Those are some great points, thanks for illustrating. I hate to admit it, but my reading comprehension skills are so affected by presentation. If someone I trust prefaces a link with "this stuff is brilliant and changed how I think" I can be reliably taken in by it. And just now, you pointing out to me to look for a bit of sanctimony and assumed-but-unexplained-premises primed me well to find them. These predilections might be so obvious as to be mundane. I mean, we all judge books by their covers even though we know better. I'm at the very beginning of Yudkowsky's book, where the author is on best behavior to woo, so I'm not bored yet. But it's over 1000 pages, and I have a backlog a mile long, so we'll see.
I think that's pretty much everyone :) I take that approach on anything trying to teach me something. But some of that is my own priming; my background is in history and then law, both of which train you to be a very skeptical and analytical reader. For fiction I don't care, so don't really worry about it as much. As you allude to, it's ultimately a question of where to spend your limited hours. If you're getting something out of reading it (even if it's just refining your own thoughts via your disagreements with Yudkowsky), then there's nothing wrong with doing so. And who knows, even a blind squirrel can find nuts, so you may find or two ideas there that are useful. If someone's right they're right, even if they come across as self-important and shallow.And just now, you pointing out to me to look for a bit of sanctimony and assumed-but-unexplained-premises primed me well to find them.