My personal opinion is to credit it to Alaska.

As a Delta PM, I made the decision to switch to AS this year as I liked the earning/redemption potential better and it gave me more flexibility of airlines to travel with (AS, DL, AA).

As for your cons with AS, if you are OneWorld, you can credit a short hop on AA to AS to keep your miles active. As for your status, if you can status match to DL, you can match to AS. And they offer an actual match, instead of a challenge you likely wouldn't complete. While MVP Gold, or MVP won't get you much on DL, it will at least get you "preferred" seats - aisle, window, exit row, etc.