The real reason it still exists as is, is because the registrars make money off of an artificially manufactured benefit. They're selling air at an infinite mark-up. And they're the ones that will fight to keep the status quo.
A registrar the size of GoDaddy must earn tens of millions annually in nearly pure profit off of WHOIS privacy fees.
For commercial sites in Germany a "Web Imprint" (Impressum) is required by law. This "Web Imprint" has to be on a prominent, easy to reach position on the site. It lists the contact data for the owner(s) of the website.
Making anonymously-run webshops against the law shields the consumer against fraud and always gives non-law enforcement a place of contact to file their complaints.
Check for yourself the correlation between WHOIS protected/anonimized webshops and shady business.