From what I've seen, the large majority of "mixers" are a scam. Or phishing. Or waiting for an exit scam.
And how do you think this could be different?
How can a mixer owner prove that he is honest?
The only way to prove that, is by being reliable for many years. And that kinda was my point: unlike torrent sites, you can't just say a new one pops up when one disappears.
I only see one solution. It's not hiding. Everyone knows who owns it. Of course, this can later create a personal safety issue. It certainly has to create a balance between privacy and its identity, in order to be minimally projected and at the same time be clear to its users.
Maybe government-owned will work in certain countries, but I wouldn't trust it.
The only way to avoid that would be from them to retain customer data including KYC which they can pass on to relevant law enforcement agencies when legally required to do so
Say North Korea makes an official request to see which disident owns a certain transaction. I can think of a few reasons not to comply.