I'm not saying it's right, but it is what happens.
To answer your question, however - What buying Boeings in exorbitant numbers does for you, is raise your lobbying power immensely. If you don't think that hundreds of billions of dollars in potential export purchases carries immense negotiating capital, then I've got a bridge to sell you.
The US will weigh up the cost of cancellations to their economy vs the cost of the competition to their carriers. That's a pretty one-sided result.
It could also be a win-win of the US carriers provided a non-embarrassing product; EK fulfils its order obligations, and US carriers actually tried to compete.
If you don't understand that concept, then there's plenty of literature to help you.