"it would mean finding an entity who was willing to take responsibility for managing signing or key distribution [...] nobody was jumping at the opportunity to volunteer."

But that is, essentially, what Microsoft are charging the $99 for. I'm sure folks at Microsoft believe they're doing this for a good cause, but of course it'll eventually turn into a clusterf*k when their suits decide to see if their competition can survive without hardware support longer than it takes to get to court...