Not attempting to claim malfeasance or anything but PNAS has a weird "contributed article" track (this article is one of them) in which the authors _can pick their own reviewers_ [1].
"Only 18% of direct submissions were published in 2013, whereas more than 98% of contributed papers were published, according to figures on the journal's website" [2].
"Only 18% of direct submissions were published in 2013, whereas more than 98% of contributed papers were published, according to figures on the journal's website" [2].
[1] https://www.pnas.org/author-center/member-contributed-submis...
[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/510330a