Emphasizing that MAH4546 described those as guesses, not implying any inside knowledge, but....

I don't think AA flying their own metal to nearby major cities from one of their major hubs could fairly be interpreted as a middle finger at all. AA and AS remain, by law, competitors, and AA can't coordinate schedules with AS to make long haul connections at LAX optimally timed. LAX-SEA and LAX-PDX are rather glaring holes in the AA network out of one of their major hubs, a hub which serves a very large O/D market and has at least a few unique long haul connections in the AA network (SYD and AKL being obvious current or near future ones). Of course, I said that about DL when they started their own LAX-SEA flights, which of course did presage major middle fingers to come, but I think it's pretty safe to say that AA won't start a hub/focus city operation in SEA or otherwise robustly compete with AS.

AS started SEA-DFW service a few years ago, and that certainly wasn't interpreted as a middle finger to AA; ditto for AS starting SEA-JFK. And AA and AS have long had overlapping service on SEA-ORD.