Can't thank JonNYC enough. His notification that the seats were open and that we had been assigned to them couldnt have came at a better time as we were most likely going to end up being rerouted with multiple layovers and a significantly delayed arrival time.
AA gate agents confirmed our names are assigned to the seats and they now show up in the app. They even showed me the screen they see (but wouldn't let me take a picture as it had other passenger names on it). However, DTW for some reason cannot print BPs with seats on them, said it has to be done at PHL. My PHL - EDI BP says a seat will be assigned at the gate... Hopefully this isnt AA playing games and we'll have a smooth process in PH. Will update once we have final BPs.
I sincerely apologize I wasn't able to be a better test subject
. 36 hours of stress but I learned a ton from all of you!