The bug in SQLObject was just a missing '+' character, it was doing:

sql = ';\n'+join_sql

instead of:

sql += ';\n'+join_sql

so the SQL for the table was getting dropped when there was "join" sql for the final content. Somewhat of a letdown, I was thinking it would be hours of plunging through deep-dark code and the bug was just sitting there in the first place I looked (about 3 lines below where I set my trace).