Njalla is Peter Sunde's project. It's a very high credential, the only possible better thing would be if Edward Snowden ran a registrar.
The ownership is a hack to workaround for some legal issues (e.g. for .es domains you're not allowed WHOIS privacy). Although post-GDPR most whois servers dramatically restricted public access, so maybe it's less important now.
Sunde gives it some credibility, but still the idea that you're not the real owner of a domain is horrible. It seems only useful for domains you believe never to get a large audience.
The ownership is a hack to workaround for some legal issues (e.g. for .es domains you're not allowed WHOIS privacy). Although post-GDPR most whois servers dramatically restricted public access, so maybe it's less important now.