Wow, never realised the world was so small! If you are prepared, in theory, to travel as far as Cuba or Mexico, there are literally dozens of islands in the Caribbean.

On the original point - I have (largely) had quite pleasant interactions with US immigration. The one notable and consistent exception is the person that organises the queues - they are always rude, abrupt and shouty.

TSA, on the other hand, can be very rude - particularly if you dare to forget that US security controls are different to many other parts of the world - e.g. you have to show ID to go airside, show your boarding pass to someone before going through the metal detector, keep hold of you boarding pass as you go through the detector to show it again to someone else 2 yards away, in case you've become someone else in the process of being scanned, take your shoes off, etc. etc.

Does it put me off visiting the US? No. But the daft system for transit pax - i.e. no airside transit, have to collect bags, go through customs, and enter country does put me off ever connecting there.