I totally agree with your assessment re: 9W and EY - EY have essentially just acquired their Indian network without stepping on so many domestic political toes that EK and to a lesser extent QR have done with all the restrictions on capacity the Indian government puts on foreign airlines - efficient narrowbody feeder network into EYs LH/ULH network with modern airframes.

With MH and EK, I think the transfer point won't be DXB, but rather MH providing narrowbody feed from across their domestic network into EK at KUL and, if economic conditions on Borneo improve, perhaps directly from KCH (which is already one of East Malaysian's regional hubs) or more likely, BKI.

After all, MH and its subsidiaries only has one competitor in most stations in the region and that's AirAsia, which has no long-haul network or partners to speak of. If people want to transit away from KUL, they pretty much only have the choice of SIN. Yes, there's an additional transit, but if you only want 1 stop service to ME/Europe/America from SIN, you're pretty much stuck with SQ and their corresponding fares. Given the price pressures in the local market, I'd assume that people living in 2nd/3rd tier cities in Malaysia would be ok with an additional stop in DXB if it meant saving some money!

I'm more intrigued by the fact MH went with EK, rather than say QR, given QR is also in Oneworld. This is the second airline that EK has picked off out of Oneworld after QF - perhaps EK is offering very good revenue sharing deals, although I think it's more to do with the fact EK can probably deploy more capacity and a broader end network on the other side.

EDIT: Also, to cheer all of you frequent EK lounge users: