Fwiu this whole thing came across mainly because us Americans don't seem to really know which hechsherim are great and "sub-par" as you called it.
Any many of us have been eating in certain places under certain hechsherim after "hearing from reliable sources" that it is ok.
When a rav was asked by Talmidim about going to sheyan/Keyara (where most ppl went until recently) , he decided to actually check it out before telling him it was ok... There was no intention at that point to make any "hechsher" out of it.
The problem was that they didnt let him in the kitchen and othe problems he found after speaking to te mashgiach. Again, He wasn't going in as new "hechsher" to find problems- he was going in as a guy trying to check out a place before eating there, asking te regular questions we all should be asking wherever we go!
That's how this whole KFI started- Fwiu (after speaking to the rav himself) .
He decided that even after we "heard" from OUR Rabanim which hechsherim are ok to eat- not always do they keep to their own written standards unfortunately... So the KFI is there to inform us that/if they are...
I hope I made some sense with what I wrote ...
It's getting real frustrating watching ppl that don't know anything about any of this comment on it...