The only thing they had to do was have someone's nephew draw a different symbol for the $8 tier and use that instead of the very well known Verified badge.
That's it. This whole debacle would've been instantly avoided.
True, but who wants the dollar-store version if the verification mark? Twitter is/was selling the prestige of the badge and what it represents to some, specifically "I am a notable individual". Any other symbol would only mean "I paid $8 for this", and my guess is that isn't quite as compelling.