Humans are very well adapted to process such visual information and can produce statistically significant(although nowhere near perfact) predictions of some 'hidden' qualities including trustworthiness in a real sample of humans.
People in 2022 are perfectly rational to think this. Even if this wasn't possible and criminals could perfectly signal trustworthiness (sometimes they don't even bother or intentionally try to look scary), the face-> trust instinct would still be a real world phenomenon worth studying.
Calling into question the decision to publish something(or the reputation of the publisher) based on simplified and incorrect expectations about how the world should be needs to stop if we want too keep calling ourselves an enlightened society.