It is, unfortunately, a calculated risk you take booking AS on these mid/transcon routes where they only have a handful of flights a day, if that, to the destination. They are not at all proactive about protecting you onto another carrier if things go belly up.

Latest example for me was October last year, I had a PDX-SEA-IAH connection booked. Only reason I even did it that way was to meet up with some family in SEA so we could all get on the same flight to Houston. So naturally the PDX-SEA connection was two hours late, and Alaska’s solution was to rebook me a day later. Well, when you are flying to Texas for a football game on said day that isn’t really a solution. Cancelled the ticket on AS, got the money back, and by dumb luck there was an E+ seat open on the afternoon PDX-IAH nonstop on UA. Snagged that and all was well. But frankly someone who doesn’t travel as much as I do and who doesn’t know how the play the game probably would have been SOL.

Moral of that particular story is always fly nonstop if you can.

To the OP, I would have done the exact same thing in your situation.