Loyalty, in this case, is a business deal. I have no illusions that any airline cares about me as a person. Indeed, they should not: it would be a (minor) breach of fiduciary responsibility to shareholders to do so.

Status earns my loyalty because of its benefits: bonus miles, early boarding, upgrades, etc., etc. These are worth enough to me that they will offset somewhat higher fares, somewhat less convenient schedules and so on. It doesn't matter to me if I earned that status year-to-year, have it for life, or got it for rubbing the right oil lamp.

So, will I be "loyal" to AA after I earn lifetime Platinum in a few months? Yes, but I am loyal to them (that is, I fly AA and partners unless there's a really strong reason not to) anyway because of EXP benefits, and I'll be at least Platinum through 2/05 even without lifetime status. Will I be more loyal than I would have been otherwise? Not at this point. If my status post-2/05 would otherwise drop to Gold, having PLT will encourage me to fly with AA, but if my status drops that far, I'm not flying much (relative to today) anyhow!