They started that in Fort Collins when we lived there several years ago. One issue that came up was that they would mail you the ticket, but had no way to prove that you actually got it. Unlike getting a ticket from a cop, where he can testify in court that he personally handed you that ticket. So you could simply not respond to the ticket, and they weren't willing to use a process server to try to physically deliver the tickets, and couldn't prosecute without that.

As to the face being visible- we got one of those tickets. It was for a time when I was at work, and was for my wife's car, but was addressed to me. I have a beard, my wife doesn't. Hard to confuse us. Evidently, they just give no thought whatever to those things when they mail them out, though. They were supposed to be comparing pictures to the driver's license pictures.