To be real honest, overall it seems to work well for what it is. Obviously you are not going to get all perfect administrators that extensively watch and assist with the server. However admins are necessary if you want to host a server, using Pecon7's and Nasoa's servers as examples, because I'm admin, all of the admins can administrate well and most help out with other issues that arise. Depending on the person they won't always have enough fully trusted people to run the server properly which they then need someone to obtain admins. Usually the app can be looked over and if people put thought into it and they spell things correctly as well as make it look nice, they are more than likely going to be a decent admin. Previous Experience is probably not lied about, this is also key because if someone is admin on old decent servers they are also probably a decent admin.
So I don't think they are terrible, but obviously the "earned trust" option is much better. An example would be in the nearly dead community of ScatteredSpace where I am also admin, took me 5 months to earn the trust of the Administration Team, but that method pays off because only one or two admins have every caused issues and been de-admined.