[justusthane]

> Let's Encrypt really only solves the problem of browsers complaining

That’s not true — it proves that the certificate issuee (is that a word?) has control over the domain that the certificate is issued to, and thus prevents MITM attacks, which a self-signed cert does not do. It’s not simply a workaround to make browsers happy.

You are correct that it doesn’t prove legal ownership of the entity.