Not sure why you’re equating “community building” with “supporting SIAI”. I’m sure they would not have started LW if they didn’t think it would help with SIAI goals (they’re probably too busy / too focused for that) but to me “I would not have started this without it needing to serve x purpose” does not mean “this is going to serve several purposes” has no value. It may be that they would not have started it without it serving y and z purposes as well (where y and z may be raising the sanity waterline, encouraging effective altruism and things like that.)
Not sure why you’re equating “community building” with “supporting SIAI”. I’m sure they would not have started LW if they didn’t think it would help with SIAI goals (they’re probably too busy / too focused for that) but to me “I would not have started this without it needing to serve x purpose” does not mean “this is going to serve several purposes” has no value. It may be that they would not have started it without it serving y and z purposes as well (where y and z may be raising the sanity waterline, encouraging effective altruism and things like that.)