I find it bewildering that it wouldn’t, actually. I would have expected one of the earliest things in the review process happening would be to black out the submitters name and university, only to be revealed after the review is closed.

Well, the editor still sees the name of the submitter, and can also push the reviewers for an easy publication by downplaying the requirements of the journal.

Could you elaborate on this statement? It sounds like you're implying something, but it's not clear what.

I interpret it as saying that at least the system hasn't just degraded into a rubber stamp (where someone like Tao can publish anything on name alone).

I think it’s that a paper submitted by one of the most famous authors in the math field is not auto approved by the journals. That even he has to go through the normal process and gets rejected at times.