i kind of like them without the halo as well. here's what i do to keep the effect but not the halo:
keep your unsharp mask on a separate layer and mask out the edges. you may need change the Levels on the mask only (it's white or black, so you just slide the black and white levels to be a shade of grey without messing up your mask painting).
i do this all the time when i want to add some pop without making it really noticeable with the halos that a strong USM processing does.
