Sometime after writing this, I saw Asya Bergal wrote an overlapping list of downsides here:
āI do think projects interacting with policymakers have substantial room for downside, including:
Pushing policies that are harmful
Making key issues partisan
Creating an impression (among policymakers or the broader world) that people who care about the long-term future are offputting, unrealistic, incompetent, or otherwise undesirable to work with
āTaking up the spaceā such that future actors who want to make long-term future-focused asks are encouraged or expected to work through or coordinate with the existing projectā
Sometime after writing this, I saw Asya Bergal wrote an overlapping list of downsides here: