I'd make the move and pocket the $43K and not fly for a year, or fly on my own leisure bits. From the earnings on the $43K alone, you should be able to buy enough tickets to go on trips and earn status again, and you won't have to deal with the hassle of running two homes (or one plus a hotel all the time) and living out of a suitcase constantly.

Looking at it a different way, say you fly every week back and forth:

CVG-DTW = 500 miles
DTW-CVG = 500 miles
Status Bonus = 1000 miles

That's 2000 miles a week for 50 weeks, or 100,000 miles in your NW/DL/CO account and platinum for another year with 100 segments.

Plus you stay four nights a week at a hotel, at a corporate contract rate of $100/night for 50 weeks. Assuming that's a Starwood, then you'd have a hotel bill of $20,000 for the year, giving you 60,000 Starpoints.

While there's some rounding involved, would you rather have $43K or 100K miles, Plat status for a year, and 60K Starpoints? At assumed value of 2 cents per mile and 3 cents per starpoint, that means Platinum status is worth $39,200 (give or take a little bit). Even if you have to pay taxes on it, the numbers strongly point to moving and taking the $43K.