It sounds like some people are conflating purchasing "leasehold" properties vs simple outright purchase.

In Hawaii, many properties are sold as "leasehold" because the department of Hawaiian Homeland Trust (and sometimes other entities) are the owner of the land and manages much of it via "leasehold" titles. This is relatively rare in the contiguous states and most centers around Indian reservations in the contiguous states.

In Hawaii, it's managed as leasehold because many of the trusts forbid selling the property, and the trustee uses the lease fees as income for the trust while always owning the asset. In Hawaii it's sometimes confusing because the Hawaiian Homeland Trust is a quasi governmental organization supposedly managing the trust for the benefit of Native Hawaiians.

There is no "Native Hawaiian" provision to purchasing a leasehold, and many of the leaseholds have a near perpetual renewal provision making the effective ownership rights nearly identical. Leaseholds that do expire can sometimes cause issues when trying to obtain a mortgage for the property, especially if the leasehold is shorter than the proposed mortgage term.