Hey, you never know
www.Hawaii.us.com may still be available....
Joking aside, I'm glad that Neulevel did what they did. They announced the release on their website (as they should have) and didn't make it big deal out of it. That way some average joes (no offense doc) could make a play for them.
My personal feeling is that although these are some "brandable" names, they would take a lot of money to make them well known enough to really make some money. I think most american domainers realize ".us" is a niche domain...It's not going to overtake .com. It's just a reality.
...So $25K is about right for the lot... Don't get so bent out of shape already!