>Imagine we spent all of our energy avoiding already unlikely situations that might marginally harm ~2 out of 7.5 billion people on earth.

false dichotomy. this isn't a choice between not doing it and doing it absolutely always. i'm not claiming we need to spend all of our energy.

i think today we spend very little of our energy optimizing for any kind of empathy let alone marginal. so any increase is still well within manageable (in terms of cost).