Either friendliness is still a hard thing compared to an entire AGI project, or not.
In the first case, ignoring friendliness gives significant advantage in speed, and there can be someone who cuts enough corners to win the race and builds an uFAI.
In the second case, trying to create a mostly-friendly AI and getting any partial progress wins some reputation in the AI community. This can help to sell friendliness considerations to other researchers.
You’re assuming that people who don’t understand Friendly AI have enough competence to actually build a functioning agent AI in the first place.
Either friendliness is still a hard thing compared to an entire AGI project, or not.
In the first case, ignoring friendliness gives significant advantage in speed, and there can be someone who cuts enough corners to win the race and builds an uFAI.
In the second case, trying to create a mostly-friendly AI and getting any partial progress wins some reputation in the AI community. This can help to sell friendliness considerations to other researchers.