I had to get a notary to sign my I-9 form for a new remote job. The process of identity verification involved a seemingly 19 year old dude looking at my ID and then signing a piece of paper.
A website sending you an email and tracking your IP and keeping a log... seems to be about the same level of trust to be honest.
Ageism aside, you are describing a system where an unrelated third party who has experience validating state/federal identity documents validated yours, visually compared the person presenting the documents to the picture on the ID, then signed a log in his possession that he’d testify to in court if needed.
That feels like a pretty damn good system to me, and far beyond the system you handwave at. Where’s the complaint?
Notaries are personally responsible for any misconduct with up to a felony criminal case for violations. Including not sufficiently verifying the identity of the person in front of them. Sure, most states will just slap them with a $500 penalty, but they'll also revoke the notary status pretty quickly.
I would like to re-emphasize personally. It's not a business risk, it's a personal liability.
A website sending you an email and tracking your IP and keeping a log... seems to be about the same level of trust to be honest.