Alaskan has a lot of flights to Hawaii, so there's a good connection for ya :-)
And while I can't speak for someone else, I read Leen's remarks as, "You did a great job, it's unfortunate that the paintkit doesn't reward such effort as well it should if it wasn't horizontally compressed." I.E. you got a great compliment from one of the most well-known texture artists in the X-Plane community.