One of the aspects of this system definitely allows a person to have one or more digital identities, and use that identity to authoritatively take actions that will be respected as coming from a specific underlying person (or corporate entity, for that matter). Identity plays an important role in web of trust systems, since it allows us to rate the information sources.
And yes, you're entirely correct that this uses a group rather than a single authority to verify identity.
But it's fair to say that the uses of such a system extend far beyond just verifying identity.
Vitalik recently shared a post on improving reputation systems despite anonymity - https://ethresear.ch/t/anonymous-reputation-risking-and-burning/3926
HIVE!D
It doesn't look for me really useful. Which benefit in real-world use cases it can bring besides from "hey I can trust this buddy, because of his score"