[devwastaken]

SSL was never a sign of trust. That's what people made up. The algorithm has no intention of 'trust'.

Ease of SSL certs provides significantly better protection from threats between you and legitimate sites than potential illigitimate sites.

[cptskippy]

Originally SSL required identity verification and financial costs were very high.

Fraudulent SSL certs weren't a thing because the barrier to entry way so high and the rewards for spoofing a site were low since e-commerce was insignificant.