It absolutely doesn't rely on competent auditors. The AICPA that fabricated SOC2, is the same AICPA that gives licenses to the auditors. At some point, they opened it up to getting it over the internet.

Indian companies open up shell businesses in Wyoming and elsewhere, get "certified", and offer rubber stamp auditing services. Few ever check if you actually have SOC2, or what auditor you used (since, by definition, they need to be "legit").

By the way, the AICPA website was recently throwing https expired cert errors. Their solution after weeks of me pointing it out on twitter, was to take down the entire website.