> So far it’s feeling like a “cool club” with little rhyme or reason with regards to certain verification decisions.

That's how Twitter started, and when the policy changed, the "cool club" members threw public tantrums (some of which still seethe to this day).

It's all very high-school cafeteria clique to me.

Regardless, it was weird to try to convert that into a "I paid" check-mark.