The main, good part of EA is just about donating money in a way that does the most good possible. Which for most of us means organizations that stop people dying unnecessarily in poorer countries.
Seems like EAs are actually pretty familiar with the history of utilitarian thought. Much EA discourse focuses on moral philosophy and meta-ethics. Will MacAskill, well-known EA, is a professor of moral philosophy.
Deontology has its problems too.
Jeremy Bentham, often regarded as the founder of classical utilitarianism, almost 300 years ago, was arguing in favor of women's rights, decriminalization of homosexuality, abolition of slavery, animal welfare, prison reform.
https://www.utilitarianism.net/utilitarian-thinker/jeremy-be...
Whenever I speak to them, they've clearly never actually read the 10 page essay they're complaining about. Makes me wonder if they actually read any philosophy either.
In the 60’s/70’s it would have been called a cult.