Thank you for the suggestion.... Updating the dataAssist form for the insert page with form builder and using the date picker would not lose any associations.
Updating the Update page would lose the default values set from the database.
The only slightly tricky parts I have found updating DataAssist forms with form builder is that the buttons aren't named properly and only one submit button remains.
I have found if I copy the buttons before replacing the form, then I can paste the buttons back in and replace the form builder button to account for that problem.
The next version of dataAssist will integrate form builder, so including the date-picker option is a good suggestion. Thanks again for the feedback.