I don't know about the value of the MVP award, but I do think the appraisers are underestimating the value of the .us extension.
Maybe .us is not worth that much now, but give it time. I'm very optimistic about .us.
Almost all of the good, catchy .com, and .net names are taken and renewed each year - that's why people wanted to create these new extensions like .us.
I think that that people will certainly migrate to the .us extension to get the domain name that they really want instead of settling for an extremely long or hyphenated .com that doesn't make any sense. It's only a matter of time.
Don't develop "tunnel vision" and miss out on the promise of that the .us extension has to offer.