In fact, even despite the relatively not too disastrous errors both U.S. teams made in comparison to similar errors of top teams ahead of them, both U.S. teams should have received higher GOE on some of their elements. K/F didn't get better GOE on some quality elements because they skated early and they are a new partnership.
C-G/LD didn't get better GOE on what they did well because of judges holding back. Quite clearly both U.S. teams are competitive with all of the top teams.
A question: which element should they have received more GOE? I thought K/F could have got more PCS, but their skate was very tentative. Even their twist wasn't as good as I've seen before, but it was their debut, and some nervousness was to be expected. As for Ash and Tim, I could argue for more in the step sequence, but they also had balance checks there, so positives and negatives balance each other out. In the comparison with the top 3, for example, I cannot see how they would get close to them. Maybe a battle for 4th place in the current standings.