I have a feeling you're right. While I think the HAL acquisition was a good business call (risky but necessary to bulk up to avoid getting squeezed out in the long run) it's also partly a vanity project for the AS top dogs. They didn't put themselves in charge of a (partly) global airline just to hand the keys over to somebody else (they're young).

Adding B6 to our mix would certainly improve our critical mass, and long-term ability to swim in the deep end with the big four, but our leaders would probably consider it a "nice to have", not an existential survival need. So they could probably take it or leave it, at least as things stand now.