Anyone ever think that maybe DAL and AS upped the poison pill if anyone buys AS and terminates the code share?

That alone would allow AS to stay independent and DAL to keep their feed. The agreement with DAL does not allow for any added code share. It let AS keep the feed to AMR as it was with no increase for something like a JAL flight from PDX to NRT. This code share with an increased poison pill would be a great deterrent.