"My question would be, why does the share price seem to be appreciating amidst all this angst on the forum regarding the 2nd tranche?"

We have our own "wall of worry" to climb? 

As far as Poet being off the hook for DL expenses - that goes hand and hand with the sale of DL, if the deal blows up, then so does the element of the buyer paying the expenses.  Not sure how much has been spent on DL by the buyers since the the deal closed.  They are paying the employees and overhead expenses, but I'm not clear that they've spent much yet on any expansion - although architects and engineers may have been hired to they can commence expansion asap once Consortium is comfortable with the OI.