In my field of laser physics, there are some really, well known lasers, so if your paper talks about this or that facility and cites this "monumental work by X group" you can easily gather who is the author. Not to mention (yes heaarsay) of at least one person in my group who refereed a paper, harshly criticizing it paper only to have the editor come down and say "accept this paper anyway." Academia has some good parts but it's as political as anything, if not more so.