An insightful Hacker News comment about the power of brand:

"A business trading on a name without some kind of sunk cost that incentivizes them to protect that name should be a red flag for consumers"

A brand moves a transaction from a single game to an integrated game, which incentivizes cooperation.

On Amazon in the last decade we've seen the rise of faux brands–made up words that no one has any repeated connection to.

It looks like a brand, but the trust dynamics are radically different.