I now feel like the efforts put into trying to stop it are wasted and the people wasting these efforts are smart enough that they could instead be trying to steer the whole thing in a better direction.

Ignorance won't help us. I agree with the negatives, I just feel like this approach is backwards.

In which direction would you steer a house fire to lead to a better outcome?

There's no good endpoint for people if AI succeeds, it's that simple. It doesn't matter how many people get to roast marshmallows as the place burns.