A verification badge should be something that says "this person indeed is who they claim to be" not "they can spend a couple of bucks a month" nor "we like him enough to give them a checkmark". Both are extremely unhelpful. The latter probably even more unhelpful since it is very subjective.
Verification came with moderation tweaks for high-profile accounts to combat things like brigading via mass abuse reports. That's why consistently bad behavior tended to lose the check.
Probably should've been two different flags, but it wasn't.
It was not indeed happening "routinely".
https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/15/16658600/twitter-verific...