EA is thus an excuse / incitation to commit immoral and in SBF's and his co-conspirators case illegal things.
No, this isn't the original idea. It's one that came up when people started trying to combine utilitarianism and arithmetic with the actual original idea: to ask the question "How can I do the most good in the world?"
Note that I said "utilitarianism and arithmetic". It is one thing to say "saving 2M people from disease is better than saving 200 people from death". It is something quite different to say "it is X times better".
Also, I'd probably say "simple EA", since I have no idea what "true EA" would even mean.
The modern equivalent of paying indulgences to the Catholic Church; the wealthly have always sought ways of justifying the grotesqueries of their lifestyles. Indeed for many, it's the primary labor of their lives.
Only approximately. Indulgences were used as a penance which was only possible on the precondition of true contrition. There is no such contrition in the philosophy of EA.
EA: How wonderful! It shall be our moral centerpiece.