See these two threads, especially the first and newest one:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/post-developed-us.1011553/
https://www.namepros.com/threads/the-official-us-spotter-developed-full-sites.680422/
And see this and a few posts after it:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/us...es-report-thread.167208/page-147#post-5823747
And Kate has made such important points here which coincide with what I and to some degree others have written before:
Zero promotion also doesn't help.
It's unlikely that a ccTLD (any ccTLD) is going to thrive when it's not being embraced by national authorities. The official bodies lead the way and the rest of the country follows. Not happening in the US.
As I have also suggested before, what are the greatest examples of this, with the greatest psychological impact upon the public? No doubt there are many, but I would suggest, among others, that when TV commercials for the US military itself feature ".com" only and prominently, it sends a huge message, and also helps keep the American public from being aware .US even exists. And that is what happens when such commercials appear with their captivating content, wrapped in a .com bow at their conclusion.
And yet what bigger, clearer, more appropriate, and more patriotic public splash and public statement could be made than if the US military in its marketing and advertising included "Army.US" and "Navy.US" and "AirForce.US" and "Marines.US" in their print and most especially their television advertising?
I could certainly say much more about what has happened in our country regarding awareness and knowledge of both domain names in general, what they are, how they work, and .US in particular, including what I have witnessed firsthand.
.US is still as used to be said a "sleeping giant" which is not only still asleep but also all but comatose.
The lack of the whois privacy option is definitely also an important factor, but second to these others. In fact, the lack of the whois privacy option may even be directly related to some of these other issues, i.e. that some may have simply wanted this to be the status quo all this time for whatever reasons.
The bottom line is that the American public still after all these years scarcely knows .us even exists despite that it is our very country code. If they did things might be very dramatically different, however. And perhaps that's the problem - perhaps too many people with too much influence and too many vested interests and so forth simply do not want and have not wanted that. No other TLD can even come close to matching the patriotic elements of .US - it's in a class by itself in that regard. And yet you can still even find a US federal government employee almost ready to retire after decades of working for the US who does not even know that .US exists (see where I have written about that very thing before no less). It would have taken very little really to start and fan the flame of .US otherwise, but that very little has never been done, and the flame has clearly simply been kept stifled to the barest minimum beyond extinguished under the .com rocks, like a pilot light on a stove turned down so low that it barely even shows at all.
