You have an interesting thought process.
According to the "Authors info and affiliations" block of the PNAS article -- "Edited by Kenneth A. Shepsle, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and approved August 30, 2021 (received for review February 22, 2021)".
Apparently, this is something new for you, so allow me to walk you through the usual process of peer review. The authors submitted the article to PNAS for review February 22, 2021. The primary editor for PNAS for this article was Dr. Kenneth A. Shepsle at Harvard*. In the usual practice for serious journals, he sent the article out for review by others he knew to be knowledgable in the field. In the interest of honest research and debate, the names of the reviewers are not disclosed (not even to the original authors) unless they do so voluntarily. Dr. Shepsle suggested modifications based on the reviews and his own reading of the article, the edited article was approved August 30, 2021, and published in PNAS November 2, 2021.
*
https://scholar.harvard.edu/kshepsle/biocv
It is interesting to note that in Dr. Shepsle's CV is the statement "He was editor of Public Choice".
I now return you to your alternate universe.