Maybe that's the point, AUH has now won the so called 'dick swinging' that prevented a practical merger in the past.
Dubai and Abu Dhabi take a leak in a lake, Dubai says "this lake sure is cold", Abu Dhabi says 'yeah, and deep too".
AUH always wanted control of the airline, the management and the way it is merged; it's money, it's management, it's rules. Now it has the ideal chance to do exactly that.
I think a merger was and remains inevitable but experience shows that it will be royally mishandled but one way or another they'll be forced together.